Learning communication systems using channel approximation

ABSTRACT

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for training and deploying machine-learned communication over RF channels. In some implementations, information is obtained. An encoder network is used to process the information and generate a first RF signal. The first RF signal is transmitted through a first channel. A second RF signal is determined that represents the first RF signal having been altered by transmission through the first channel. Transmission of the first RF signal is simulated over a second channel implementing a machine-learning network, the second channel representing a model of the first channel. A simulated RF signal that represents the first RF signal having been altered by simulated transmission through the second channel is determined. A measure of distance between the second RF signal and the simulated RF signal is calculated. The machine-learning network is updated using the measure of distance.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional of Ser. No. 16/291,936, filed Mar. 4,2019, now allowed, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 62/637,770, filed on Mar. 2, 2018 and U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 62/664,306, filed on Apr. 30, 2018. The disclosure of these priorapplications are considered part of and are incorporated by reference inthe disclosure of this application.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to communication channel modeling usingmachine-learning networks.

BACKGROUND

Communication systems have usually been constructed by manually definingand implementing modulation and coding algorithms based on analyticmodels derived with convenient algebraic expressions. In some instances,simplified analytic models are used (e.g., to represent a model for thecommunications channel). These usual methods for constructingcommunication systems require manual input, can be inefficient, andoften do not accurately account for many effects of real-worldcommunication channels. As such, there is a need for an efficient andautomatic method for constructing a communication system that canaccount for effects of real-world communication channels (e.g., throughmeasurement and adaptation).

SUMMARY

The present disclosure describes methods, apparatus, and systems tolearn and deploy a communications system by using an encodermachine-learning network, a decoder machine-learning network, and anapproximated communications channel implementing a channelmachine-learning network. The machine-learning networks of the systemare adversarially optimized, such that the objective functions of theencoder machine-learning network and/or the decoder machine-learningnetwork compete with the objective function of the channelmachine-learning network.

In some implementations, adversarially optimizing the machine-learningnetworks includes optimizing the encoder machine-learning network and/orthe decoder machine-learning network iteratively with the channelmachine-learning network.

In some implementations, adversarially optimizing the machine-learningnetworks includes optimizing the encoder machine-learning network and/orthe decoder machine-learning network jointly with the channelmachine-learning network.

The present disclosure also describes methods, apparatus and systems tolearn and deploy a communications system that includes an approximatedcommunications channel implementing a channel machine-learning networkand a discriminator machine-learning network. The channelmachine-learning network may be a variational and/or conditionalgenerator network. The machine-learning networks of the system areadversarially optimized, such that the objective function of thediscriminator machine-learning network competes with the objectivefunction of the channel machine-learning network. In someimplementations, these may further compete with the objective functionsfor training an encoder and/or decoder machine-learning network.

In some implementations, adversarially optimizing the machine-learningnetworks includes optimizing the discriminator machine-learning networkiteratively with the channel machine-learning network.

In some implementations, adversarially optimizing the machine-learningnetworks includes optimizing the discriminator machine-learning networkjointly with the channel machine-learning network.

In one aspect, a method includes obtaining first information; using anencoder machine-learning network to process the first information andgenerate a first radio-frequency signal; transmitting the firstradio-frequency signal through a first communication channel;determining a second radio-frequency signal that represents the firstradio-frequency signal having been altered by transmission through thefirst communication channel; simulating transmission of the firstradio-frequency signal over a second communication channel implementinga channel machine-learning network, the second communication channelrepresenting a model of the first communication channel; determining asimulated radio-frequency signal that represents the firstradio-frequency signal having been altered by simulated transmissionthrough the second communication channel; calculating a first measure ofdistance between the second radio-frequency signal and the simulatedradio-frequency signal; and updating the channel machine-learningnetwork using the first measure of distance.

In some implementations, the method further includes: using a decodermachine-learning network to process the simulated radio-frequency signaland generate second information that is a reconstruction of the firstinformation; calculating a second measure of distance between the secondinformation and the first information; and updating at least one of theencoder machine-learning network or the decoder machine-learning networkusing the second measure of distance.

In some implementations, the method further includes: calculating acombined distance using the first measure of distance and the secondmeasure of distance; and updating at least one of the encodermachine-learning network, the decoder machine-learning network, or thechannel machine-learning network using the combined distance.

In some implementations, the encoder machine-learning network, thedecoder machine-learning network, and the channel machine-learningnetwork of the approximated channel are updated concurrently.

In some implementations, the encoder machine-learning network or thedecoder machine-learning network, and the channel machine-learningnetwork are updated iteratively.

In some implementations, updating the channel machine-learning networkincludes: inserting a reference tone into the first radio-frequencysignal at an offset time; determining a time at which the firstradio-frequency signal has passed through the first communicationchannel; using the reference tone and the time at which the firstradio-frequency signal has passed through the first communicationchannel to determine at least one of timing or frequency of the firstradio-frequency signal; receiving the second radio-frequency signal; andusing the timing or frequency of the first radio-frequency signal toremove alignment errors from the second radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, updating the channel machine-learning networkincludes: using a digital to analog converter to process the firstradio-frequency signal, where the digital to analog converter receives asignal from a time source; using an analog to digital converter toproduce the second radio-frequency signal, where the analog to digitalconverter receives a signal from the time source; and using a knowntiming of the time source to align the second radio-frequency signalwith the first radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, at least one of the encoder machine-learningnetwork, the decoder machine-learning network, or the channelmachine-learning network of the approximated channel includes one of adense neural network (DNN), a convolutional neural network (CNN), or arecurrent neural network (RNN) includes parametric multiplications,additions, and non-linearities.

In some implementations, the first measure of distance includes at leastone of (i) a cross-entropy between the second radio-frequency signal andthe simulated radio-frequency signal, (ii) a geometric distance metricbetween the second radio-frequency signal and the simulatedradio-frequency signal, (iii) a measure of probability distributionbetween second radio-frequency signal and the simulated radio frequencysignal, or (iv) a measure of distance between characterizing the secondradio-frequency signal and the simulated radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, the second measure of distance includes atleast one of (i) a cross-entropy between the second information and thefirst information, (ii) a geometric distance metric between the secondinformation and the first information, or (iii) a measure of accuracy ofone or more of the reconstructed bits, code words, or messages of thefirst information from the second information.

In some implementations, updating the encoder machine-learning network,includes updating at least one encoding network weight or networkconnectivity in one or more layers of the encoder machine-learningnetwork, updating the decoder machine-learning network includes updatingat least one decoding network weight or network connectivity in one ormore layers of the decoder machine-learning network, and updating thechannel machine-learning network includes updating at least one networkweight or network connectivity in one or more layers of the channelmachine-learning network.

In some implementations, the method further includes: processing thefirst radio-frequency signal to generate a first analog radio-frequencywaveform that is input into the first communication channel; receiving asecond analog radio-frequency waveform as an output of the firstcommunication channel that represents the first analog radio-frequencywaveform having been altered by the first communication channel; andprocessing the second analog radio-frequency waveform to generate thesecond radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, the first communication channel includes atleast one of a radio communication channel, an acoustic communicationchannel, or an optical communication channel.

In another aspect, a method includes: transmitting input informationthrough a first communication channel; obtaining first information as anoutput of the first communication channel; transmitting the inputinformation through a second communication channel implementing achannel machine-learning network, the second communication channelrepresenting a model of the first communication channel; obtainingsecond information as an output of the second communication channel;providing the first information or the second information to adiscriminator machine-learning network as an input; obtaining an outputof the discriminator machine-learning network; and updating the channelmachine-learning network using the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network.

In some implementations, the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network indicates a decision by the discriminatormachine-learning network whether the input provided to the discriminatormachine-learning network was the output of the first communicationchannel or the second communication channel.

In some implementations, the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network is a binary output.

In some implementations, the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network indicates a degree of similarity between thefirst communication channel and the second communication channel.

In some implementations, the channel machine-learning network includesone or more variational layers or neurons containing a random samplingoperation using at least one of inputs or weights to define a particularaspect of a probability distribution.

In some implementations, the channel machine-learning network isconditioned on the input information.

In some implementations, the channel machine-learning network isconditioned on one or more locations of one or more radios transceivingthe first radio-frequency signal or the second radio-frequency signal.

In another aspect, a system includes: at least one processor; and atleast one computer memory coupled to the at least one processor havingstored thereon instructions which, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the at least one processor to perform operationsincludes: obtaining first information; using an encoder machine-learningnetwork to process the first information and generate a firstradio-frequency signal; transmitting the first radio-frequency signalthrough a first communication channel; determining a secondradio-frequency signal that represents the first radio-frequency signalhaving been altered by transmission through the first communicationchannel; simulating transmission of the first radio-frequency signalover a second communication channel implementing a channelmachine-learning network, the second communication channel representinga model of the first communication channel; determining a simulatedradio-frequency signal that represents the first radio-frequency signalhaving been altered by simulated transmission through the secondcommunication channel; calculating a first measure of distance betweenthe second radio-frequency signal and the simulated radio-frequencysignal; and updating the channel machine-learning network using thefirst measure of distance.

In some implementations, the operations further include: using a decodermachine-learning network to process the simulated radio-frequency signaland generate second information that is a reconstruction of the firstinformation; calculating a second measure of distance between the secondinformation and the first information; and updating at least one of theencoder machine-learning network or the decoder machine-learning networkusing the second measure of distance.

In some implementations, the operations further include: calculating acombined distance using the first measure of distance and the secondmeasure of distance; and updating at least one of the encodermachine-learning network, the decoder machine-learning network, or thechannel machine-learning network using the combined distance.

In some implementations, the encoder machine-learning network, thedecoder machine-learning network, and the channel machine-learningnetwork of the approximated channel are updated concurrently.

In some implementations, the encoder machine-learning network or thedecoder machine-learning network, and the channel machine-learningnetwork are updated iteratively.

In some implementations, updating the channel machine-learning networkincludes: inserting a reference tone into the first radio-frequencysignal at an offset time; determining a time at which the firstradio-frequency signal has passed through the first communicationchannel; using the reference tone and the time at which the firstradio-frequency signal has passed through the first communicationchannel to determine at least one of timing or frequency of the firstradio-frequency signal; receiving the second radio-frequency signal; andusing the timing or frequency of the first radio-frequency signal toremove alignment errors from the second radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, updating the channel machine-learning networkincludes: using a digital to analog converter to process the firstradio-frequency signal, where the digital to analog converter receives asignal from a time source; using an analog to digital converter toproduce the second radio-frequency signal, where the analog to digitalconverter receives a signal from the time source; and using a knowntiming of the time source to align the second radio-frequency signalwith the first radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, at least one of the encoder machine-learningnetwork, the decoder machine-learning network, or the channelmachine-learning network of the approximated channel includes one of adense neural network (DNN), a convolutional neural network (CNN), or arecurrent neural network (RNN) includes parametric multiplications,additions, and non-linearities.

In some implementations, the first measure of distance includes at leastone of (i) a cross-entropy between the second radio-frequency signal andthe simulated radio-frequency signal, (ii) a geometric distance metricbetween the second radio-frequency signal and the simulatedradio-frequency signal, (iii) a measure of probability distributionbetween second radio-frequency signal and the simulated radio frequencysignal, or (iv) a measure of distance between characterizing the secondradio-frequency signal and the simulated radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, the second measure of distance includes atleast one of (i) a cross-entropy between the second information and thefirst information, (ii) a geometric distance metric between the secondinformation and the first information, or (iii) a measure of accuracy ofone or more of the reconstructed bits, code words, or messages of thefirst information from the second information.

In some implementations, updating the encoder machine-learning network,includes updating at least one encoding network weight or networkconnectivity in one or more layers of the encoder machine-learningnetwork, updating the decoder machine-learning network includes updatingat least one decoding network weight or network connectivity in one ormore layers of the decoder machine-learning network, and updating thechannel machine-learning network includes updating at least one networkweight or network connectivity in one or more layers of the channelmachine-learning network.

In some implementations, the operations further include: processing thefirst radio-frequency signal to generate a first analog radio-frequencywaveform that is input into the first communication channel; receiving asecond analog radio-frequency waveform as an output of the firstcommunication channel that represents the first analog radio-frequencywaveform having been altered by the first communication channel; andprocessing the second analog radio-frequency waveform to generate thesecond radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, the first communication channel includes atleast one of a radio communication channel, an acoustic communicationchannel, or an optical communication channel.

In another aspect, a system includes: at least one processor; and atleast one computer memory coupled to the at least one processor havingstored thereon instructions which, when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the at least one processor to perform operationsincludes: transmitting input information through a first communicationchannel; obtaining first information as an output of the firstcommunication channel; transmitting the input information through asecond communication channel implementing a channel machine-learningnetwork, the second communication channel representing a model of thefirst communication channel; obtaining second information as an outputof the second communication channel; providing the first information orthe second information to a discriminator machine-learning network as aninput; obtaining an output of the discriminator machine-learningnetwork; and updating the channel machine-learning network using theoutput of the discriminator machine-learning network.

In some implementations, the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network indicates a decision by the discriminatormachine-learning network whether the input provided to the discriminatormachine-learning network was the output of the first communicationchannel or the second communication channel.

In some implementations, the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network is a binary output.

In some implementations, the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network indicates a degree of similarity between thefirst communication channel and the second communication channel.

In some implementations, the channel machine-learning network includesone or more variational layers or neurons containing a random samplingoperation using at least one of inputs or weights to define a particularaspect of a probability distribution.

In some implementations, the channel machine-learning network isconditioned on the input information.

In some implementations, the channel machine-learning network isconditioned on one or more locations of one or more radios transceivingthe first radio-frequency signal or the second radio-frequency signal.

In another aspect, one or more non-transitory computer-readable media,storing a computer program, the program includes instructions that whenexecuted by one or more processing devices cause the one or moreprocessing devices to perform operations includes: obtaining firstinformation; using an encoder machine-learning network to process thefirst information and generate a first radio-frequency signal;transmitting the first radio-frequency signal through a firstcommunication channel; determining a second radio-frequency signal thatrepresents the first radio-frequency signal having been altered bytransmission through the first communication channel; simulatingtransmission of the first radio-frequency signal over a secondcommunication channel implementing a channel machine-learning network,the second communication channel representing a model of the firstcommunication channel; determining a simulated radio-frequency signalthat represents the first radio-frequency signal having been altered bysimulated transmission through the second communication channel;calculating a first measure of distance between the secondradio-frequency signal and the simulated radio-frequency signal; andupdating the channel machine-learning network using the first measure ofdistance.

In some implementations, the operations further include: using a decodermachine-learning network to process the simulated radio-frequency signaland generate second information that is a reconstruction of the firstinformation; calculating a second measure of distance between the secondinformation and the first information; and updating at least one of theencoder machine-learning network or the decoder machine-learning networkusing the second measure of distance.

In some implementations, the operations further include: calculating acombined distance using the first measure of distance and the secondmeasure of distance; and updating at least one of the encodermachine-learning network, the decoder machine-learning network, or thechannel machine-learning network using the combined distance.

In some implementations, the encoder machine-learning network, thedecoder machine-learning network, and the channel machine-learningnetwork of the approximated channel are updated concurrently.

In some implementations, the encoder machine-learning network or thedecoder machine-learning network, and the channel machine-learningnetwork are updated iteratively.

In some implementations, updating the channel machine-learning networkincludes: inserting a reference tone into the first radio-frequencysignal at an offset time; determining a time at which the firstradio-frequency signal has passed through the first communicationchannel; using the reference tone and the time at which the firstradio-frequency signal has passed through the first communicationchannel to determine at least one of timing or frequency of the firstradio-frequency signal; receiving the second radio-frequency signal; andusing the timing or frequency of the first radio-frequency signal toremove alignment errors from the second radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, updating the channel machine-learning networkincludes: using a digital to analog converter to process the firstradio-frequency signal, where the digital to analog converter receives asignal from a time source; using an analog to digital converter toproduce the second radio-frequency signal, where the analog to digitalconverter receives a signal from the time source; and using a knowntiming of the time source to align the second radio-frequency signalwith the first radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, at least one of the encoder machine-learningnetwork, the decoder machine-learning network, or the channelmachine-learning network of the approximated channel includes one of adense neural network (DNN), a convolutional neural network (CNN), or arecurrent neural network (RNN) includes parametric multiplications,additions, and non-linearities.

In some implementations, the first measure of distance includes at leastone of (i) a cross-entropy between the second radio-frequency signal andthe simulated radio-frequency signal, (ii) a geometric distance metricbetween the second radio-frequency signal and the simulatedradio-frequency signal, (iii) a measure of probability distributionbetween second radio-frequency signal and the simulated radio frequencysignal, or (iv) a measure of distance between characterizing the secondradio-frequency signal and the simulated radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, the second measure of distance includes atleast one of (i) a cross-entropy between the second information and thefirst information, (ii) a geometric distance metric between the secondinformation and the first information, or (iii) a measure of accuracy ofone or more of the reconstructed bits, code words, or messages of thefirst information from the second information.

In some implementations, updating the encoder machine-learning network,includes updating at least one encoding network weight or networkconnectivity in one or more layers of the encoder machine-learningnetwork, updating the decoder machine-learning network includes updatingat least one decoding network weight or network connectivity in one ormore layers of the decoder machine-learning network, and updating thechannel machine-learning network includes updating at least one networkweight or network connectivity in one or more layers of the channelmachine-learning network.

In some implementations, the operations further include: processing thefirst radio-frequency signal to generate a first analog radio-frequencywaveform that is input into the first communication channel; receiving asecond analog radio-frequency waveform as an output of the firstcommunication channel that represents the first analog radio-frequencywaveform having been altered by the first communication channel; andprocessing the second analog radio-frequency waveform to generate thesecond radio-frequency signal.

In some implementations, the first communication channel includes atleast one of a radio communication channel, an acoustic communicationchannel, or an optical communication channel.

In another aspect, one or more non-transitory computer-readable media,storing a computer program, the program includes instructions that whenexecuted by one or more processing devices cause the one or moreprocessing devices to perform operations includes: transmitting inputinformation through a first communication channel; obtaining firstinformation as an output of the first communication channel;transmitting the input information through a second communicationchannel implementing a channel machine-learning network, the secondcommunication channel representing a model of the first communicationchannel; obtaining second information as an output of the secondcommunication channel; providing the first information or the secondinformation to a discriminator machine-learning network as an input;obtaining an output of the discriminator machine-learning network; andupdating the channel machine-learning network using the output of thediscriminator machine-learning network.

In some implementations, the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network indicates a decision by the discriminatormachine-learning network whether the input provided to the discriminatormachine-learning network was the output of the first communicationchannel or the second communication channel.

In some implementations, the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network is a binary output.

In some implementations, the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network indicates a degree of similarity between thefirst communication channel and the second communication channel.

In some implementations, the channel machine-learning network includesone or more variational layers or neurons containing a random samplingoperation using at least one of inputs or weights to define a particularaspect of a probability distribution.

In some implementations, the channel machine-learning network isconditioned on the input information.

In some implementations, the channel machine-learning network isconditioned on one or more locations of one or more radios transceivingthe first radio-frequency signal or the second radio-frequency signal.

Other implementations of these and other aspects include correspondingsystems, apparatuses, and computer programs, configured to perform theactions of the methods, encoded on computer storage devices. A system ofone or more computers can be so configured by virtue of software,firmware, hardware, or a combination of them installed on the systemthat in operation cause the system to perform the actions. One or morecomputer programs can be so configured by virtue of having instructionsthat, when executed by data processing apparatus, cause the apparatus toperform the actions.

All or part of the features described throughout this application can beimplemented as a computer program product including instructions thatare stored on one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media,and that are executable on one or more processing devices. All or partof the features described throughout this application can be implementedas an apparatus, method, or electronic system that can include one ormore processing devices and memory to store executable instructions toimplement the stated functions.

The techniques described herein can be implemented to achieve one ormore of the following improvements and advantages. For example, byoptimizing the objectives of an approximated communications channel andinformation encoding for the approximated communications channel, thedisclosed system enables the design of communications systems that canaccount for specific hardware devices, channel types, channelimpairments, or other constraints, which are traditionally hard to model(or result in sub-optimal performance when making simplifyingassumptions about the channel effects) or which may vary widelydepending on hardware and environmental factors upon deployment.

In addition, by using a machine-learning network, such as a parametricnetwork, for function approximation and a wide variety of linear,non-linear, and difficult-to-model communications channel impairmenteffects, the communications channel can be approximated, updated andmodeled rapidly without compromising the validity of the channel modelby attempting to simplify it.

Also, by enabling the encoder and decoder machine-learning networks withhigh degrees of freedom to arbitrarily mix information and learnnear-optimal encoding representations and inference processes drivenprincipally, for example, by a high-level loss or objective function,the disclosed system allows for a highly efficient communication systemdesigns, which outperform traditional solutions to many radio-frequency(RF) communications and encoding problems. This performance advantagecan be attributed in some instances to better optimization for realoperating conditions and effects of the wireless channel and radiohardware, as well as to the multi-function optimization and compactinference learning within the radio modem, for instance jointly learningto optimize and transform information to account for hardwarenon-linearity, modulation, error correction, equalization, and symboldetection within compact joint machine learning encoding and/or decodingnetworks for inference.

The details of one or more implementations of the subject matter of thisdisclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and thedescription below. Other features, aspects, and advantages of thesubject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings,and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a radio-frequency (RF) communicationssystem that implements a machine-learning encoder and decoder, and anapproximated communication channel having a machine-learning network toperform learned communication over a real-world RF channel.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of adversarially training an RF systemthat implements machine-learning encoder and decoder networks to learnencoding and decoding over RF channels, and implements an approximatedcommunication channel having a machine-learning network.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example system for training signal andcommunication channel models using a real-world RF channel without acommon timing source.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example system for training signal andcommunication channel models using a real-world RF channel and a commontiming source.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of deploying learned encoder and decodermachine-learning networks into a functional RF communications system.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example flowchart for training a machine-learningnetwork of an approximated communications channel.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example flowchart for training an encodermachine-learning network and/or a decoder machine-learning network.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of deploying a system that implements anapproximated channel and a discriminator that utilize functions based onresults of training a discriminator and a channel machine-learningnetworks to perform learned communication over a real-world RF channel.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a network structure of an approximatedcommunication channel implementing a variational machine-learningnetwork.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of adversarially training an RF systemthat implements a machine-learning discriminator network and anapproximated communication channel having a machine-learning networkover RF channels.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example flowchart for updating a machine-learningnetwork of an approximated communication channel.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a computing system thatmay be used to implement one or more components of a system thatperforms learned communication over RF channels.

Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings indicatelike elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and techniques are disclosed herein that enable adversarialmachine learning and deployment of communication over an impairedradio-frequency (RF) channel. In some implementations, the systemincludes an encoder machine learning network and/or a decodermachine-learning network, and an approximated communications channelimplementing a channel machine-learning network. The channelmachine-learning network may be trained to approximate a particularreal-world communications channel. The channel machine-learning networktraining may be designed to account for a wide variety of linear,non-linear, and difficult-to-model communications channel impairmenteffects. The encoder machine-learning network and/or decodermachine-learning network may be trained to encode information as asignal that is transmitted over a radio transmission channel, and decodea received signal to recover the original information. The training ofthe encoder machine-learning network and/or decoder machine-learningnetwork may be designed to achieve various criteria, such a low biterror rate, low power, low bandwidth, low complexity, particularspectral or signal properties, performing well in particular regimessuch as at a low signal to noise (SNR) ratio or under specific types ofchannel fading or interference, and/or other criteria.

The machine-learning networks of the system may be trainedadversarially, e.g., adversarially optimized, such that the objectivefunctions of the encoder machine-learning network and/or the decodermachine-learning network compete with (or differ from) the objectivefunction of the channel machine-learning network. In someimplementations, training the machine-learning networks includesadversarially optimizing the encoder machine-learning network and/or thedecoder machine-learning network iteratively with the channelmachine-learning network. In some implementations, training themachine-learning networks includes adversarially optimizing the encodermachine-learning network and/or the decoder machine-learning networkjointly with the channel machine-learning network.

In some implementations, the system includes a discriminatormachine-learning network and an approximated communication channelimplementing a channel machine-learning network. The channelmachine-learning network may be trained to approximate a particularreal-world communications channel. The channel machine-learning networktraining may be designed to account for a wide variety of linear,non-linear, and difficult-to-model communications channel impairmenteffects. In some implementations, the channel machine-learning networkis a variational generator network. The discriminator machine-learningnetwork may be trained to accurately distinguish between the output of areal-world communication channel and the approximated communicationchannel. Likewise, the discriminator and the gradients therefrom may beused to update the channel machine learning network, e.g., to make itmore similar to the real-world communications channel outputs.

The results of training such machine-learning networks may then beutilized to deploy real-world encoders and decoders in communicationscenarios to encode and decode information over various types of RFcommunication media. In some implementations, further learning andadaptation of the encoder and/or decoder is implemented duringdeployment. This may leverage known transmissions such as referencesignals, decision feedback, or may be based on feedback information.These encoders and decoders may replace or augment one or more signalprocessing functions such as modulation, demodulation, estimation,equalization, mapping, error correction, or other components which existin those systems today.

The results of training the channel machine-learning network may then beutilized to predict a channel response which may depend on input values,input locations or other parameters. The predicted response can be usedto determine RF coverage or expected receive signal strength for aparticular area. The predicted response could also be used for planningdeployments, such as location candidates for a cell towers, antennas,remote radio heads, antenna arrays or other radios system components.

The disclosed implementations present a novel approach to how digitalradio systems are designed, updated and deployed for radiocommunications applications. For example, the disclosed implementationsmay help improve a typically slow and incremental process of radiosignal processing engineering, and instead enable a new way ofdesigning, constructing, and realizing radio communications systems. Byimplementing machine-learning networks that may be trained toapproximate a real-world channel and learn suitable encoding anddecoding techniques for different types of communication media,techniques disclosed herein offer various advantages, such as improvedthroughput, power, resiliency, and complexity advantages over presentlyavailable systems. In some scenarios, this can be especially importantfor communications channels which have one or more effects which arehard to model, or hard to optimize for using other approaches.

Implementations disclosed herein may be applied to a wide range of radiocommunication systems, such as cellular, satellite, optical, acoustic,physical, emergency hand-held, broadcast, point-to-point, mesh, Wi-Fi,Bluetooth, and other forms of radio that undergo transmissionimpairments. Channel impairments may include, for example, thermalnoise, such as Gaussian-like noise, to more complex impairments such asmulti-path fading, impulse noise, spurious or continuous jamming,interference, distortion, intermodulation, compression, impedancemismatch, hardware effects, and other impairments.

The encoder and decoder may implement encoding and decoding techniquesthat are learned from one or more machine-learning networks that havebeen trained to learn suitable input-output encoding and decodingmappings based on one or more objective criteria. For example, themachine-learning networks may be artificial neural networks. Duringtraining, the machine-learning networks may be adapted through selectionof model architecture, weights, and parameters in the encoder and/or thedecoder to learn encoding and decoding mappings. The encoding anddecoding machine-learning networks may be trained jointly or may betrained iteratively.

For example, an encoder machine-learning network (also referred to as“encoder network”) and decoder machine-learning network (also referredto as “decoder network”) may be implemented as an autoencoder, in whichthe encoder network and decoder network are jointly optimized. In someimplementations, the autoencoder is trained by modeling the effects ofan impaired channel as one or more channel-modeling layers, such asstochastic layers which may include regularization layers (e.g.regularization layers, transforming layers, variational layers/samplers,noise layers, mixing layers, etc.) in the autoencoder network or asanother set of differentiable functions representing the behavior of awireless channel. The layers that model the channel may form aregularization function across random behavior of a channel. In someimplementations, an autoencoder is used to learn encoder and/or decodernetworks while using a channel machine-learning network such as avariational network as a representation of the channel impairments andeffects.

During training, an encoder machine-learning network and decodermachine-learning network may be trained to perform unsupervised, orpartially supervised, machine learning to determine techniques fortransmitting and receiving information over an impaired channel.Similarly, an approximated channel machine-learning network may betrained to perform unsupervised, or partially supervised, machinelearning to accurately emulate a particular real-world network.Similarly, a discriminator machine-learning network may be trained toperform unsupervised, or partially supervised, machine learning toaccurately distinguish signals outputted (e.g., measured) from areal-world channel and those outputted from an approximated channelhaving a machine-learning network. Therefore, in some scenarios, ratherthan being reliant upon pre-designed systems for error correction,modulation, pre-coding, pre-distortion, pre-coding, shaping, or othermodem functions, the disclosed implementations herein may adaptivelylearn techniques for encoding information into waveforms that aretransmitted over a channel, as well as techniques for decoding receivedwaveforms into reconstructed information. One or more of the networkscan be trained on real or simulated channel conditions. In this context,a real channel refers to a physical communication channel (e.g., awireless channel, a wired channel, or a combination of both) in the realworld over which actual RF communication takes place. In contrast, asimulated channel refers to a model of a real channel that models thecharacteristics and effects of a corresponding real channel, and that isrealized using software modeling or hardware modeling, or a combinationof the two. One or more of the networks that utilize results of trainingsuch machine-learning networks may further be updated during deployment,thus providing advantages in adapting to different types of wirelesssystem requirements, and in some cases improving the throughput, errorrate, complexity, and power consumption performance of such systems.

As such, regardless of the type of RF channel or RF channel impairment,implementations disclosed herein can provide broadly applicabletechniques for learning representations of information that enablereliable communication over impaired RF channels. Depending on theconfiguration of the training system and data sets and channel modelsused, such machine-learning communication techniques can specialize inperformance for a narrow class of conditions, signal or channel types,or may generalize and optimize performance for a wide range of signal orchannel types or mixtures of one or more signals or channels.

In addition, by optimizing the objectives of an approximatedcommunications channel and information encoding for the approximatedcommunications channel, the disclosed system enables the design ofcommunications systems that can account for specific hardware devices,channel types, channel impairments, or other constraints, which aretraditionally hard to model (or result in sub-optimal performance whenmaking simplifying assumptions about the channel effects).

In addition, by using a machine-learning network, such as a parametricnetwork, for function approximation and a wide variety of linear,non-linear, and difficult-to-model communications channel impairmenteffects, the communications channel can be approximated and modeledrapidly without compromising the validity of the channel model byattempting to simplify it. By leveraging variational networks, arbitrarystochastic effects over the channel model may be modeled as well.

Also, by enabling the encoder and decoder machine-learning networks withhigh degrees of freedom to arbitrarily mix information and learnnear-optimal encoding representations driven principally, for example,by a high-level loss function, the disclosed system allows for a highlyefficient communication system designs, which outperform traditionalsolutions to many radio-frequency (RF) communications and encodingproblems.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a radio-frequency communications system100 that includes a machine-learning encoder 104 and a machine-learningdecoder 114, and an approximated communication channel 120 having amachine-learning network (“channel network”) to perform learnedcommunication over a real-world RF channel 108. The system 100 alsoincludes a digital to analog converter 106 and an analog to digitalconverter 110. The encoder 104 and the decoder 114 implement encodingand decoding techniques that are learned by the machine learningnetworks to communicate over the real-world RF channel 108. Themachine-learning network of the approximated communications channel 120is taught to approximate the real-world RF channel 108.

Channel 108 may include a single wireless transmission channel. Channel108 may include multiple wireless transmission channels. Channel 108 mayinclude various analog radio components such as amplifiers, mixers, etc.Channel 108 may include a combination of various analog radio componentsand one or more wireless transmission channels. As an example, channel108 may be a wireless local area network (WLAN) channel, a Wi-Fichannel, a Bluetooth channel, a cellular network channel (e.g., oneimplementing GSM or UMTS technology), etc.

First operations 118 may include a series of pre-processing operationsand/or normalization steps that is performed on the transmitted signal130. In some implementations, first operations 118 are not performed onthe transmitted signal 130. In some implementations, first operations118 are employed by the encoder 104 or are otherwise part of encoder104.

Second operations 112 may include a series of pre-processing operationsand/or normalization steps that is performed on the received signal 140or the simulated received signal 142. In some implementations, secondoperations 112 are not performed on the received signal 140 or thesimulated received signal 142. In some implementations, secondoperations 112 are employed by the decoder 114 or are otherwise part ofdecoder 114.

The first operations 118 and the second operations 112 may includesignal detection, synchronization, orthogonal frequency-divisionmultiplexing (OFDM) or other modulation, framing, resource blockassignment or extraction, normalization, filtering, tuning, etc. inorder to, for example, account for noise, a limited bandwidth of achannel (e.g., channel 108), inconsistencies, etc. First operations 118and second operations 112 may be realized as digital signal processor(DSP) routines. First operations 118 and second operations 112 mayinvolve additional neural network based pre-processing tasks.

In scenarios of training, the encoder 104 includes a machine-learningnetwork (“encoder network”) that learns how to represent the inputinformation 102 as a transmitted signal 130 for transmission over thechannel 108. Analogously, during training, the decoder 114 includes amachine-learning network (“decoder network”) that learns how to decode areceived signal 140 after it has been modified by second operations 112into reconstructed information 116 that approximates the original inputinformation 102. During training, the approximated channel 120 includesa machine-learning network that learns to simulate channel 108. That is,the channel network models the impairments which occur to a radio signalsent over a channel (e.g., channel 108) based on analog hardwarecomponents and/or radio propagation effects of the channel (and otherancillary hardware components used in RF signal transmission andreception). The encoder 104 and decoder 114 may be trained to achievevarious types of objective functions, such as a measure ofreconstruction error, a measure of computational complexity, bandwidth,latency, power, or various combinations therefor and other objectives.Further details of training are described below, for example withreference to FIG. 2.

In scenarios of approximated channel 120 training and encoder 104 and/ordecoder 114 deployment, the channel machine-learning network of theapproximated channel 120 is trained when the lower path shown in FIG. 1is followed, i.e., when: (i) input information 102 is passed through theencoder 104; (ii) the encoder 104 produces the transmitted signal 130;(iii) the transmitted signal 130 is passed through the digital to analogconverter 106; (iv) the converted transmitted signal 130 is thentransmitted across channel 108 and altered as a result of beingtransmitted across channel 108; (v) the altered signal is then passedthrough an analog to digital converter 110, producing the receivedsignal 140; (vi) the received signal 140 is modified by secondoperations 112; (vii) the modified received signal is passed through thedecoder 114; and (viii) the decoder 114 produces reconstructedinformation 114 that is an attempted reproduction of the inputinformation 102. During approximated channel training and encoder 104and/or decoder 114 deployment, and as described in more detail withrespect to FIG. 2, the transmitted signal 130 and the received signal140 are used to update the channel machine-learning network of theapproximated channel 120.

In other implementations (as shown by the dotted line), in scenarios ofapproximated channel 120 training and encoder 104 and/or decoder 114deployment, the channel machine-learning network of the approximatedchannel 120 is trained when: (i) input information 102 is passed throughthe encoder 104; (ii) the output signal of the encoder 104 is sent tofirst operations 118 (e.g., an OFDM modulator); (iii) the firstoperations 118 produce the transmitted signal 130; (iv) the transmittedsignal 130 is passed through the digital to analog converter 106; (v)the converted transmitted signal 130 is then transmitted across channel108 and altered as a result of being transmitted across channel 108;(vi) the altered signal is then passed through an analog to digitalconverter 110, producing the received signal 140; (vii) the receivedsignal 140 is modified by second operations 112; (viii) the modifiedreceived signal is passed through the decoder 114; and (ix) the decoder114 produces reconstructed information 114 that is an attemptedreproduction of the input information 102. During approximated channeltraining and encoder 104 and/or decoder 114 deployment, and as will bedescribed in more detail with respect to FIG. 2, the transmitted signal130 and the received signal 140 are used to update the channelmachine-learning network of the approximated channel 120.

During approximated channel 120 training and encoder 104 and/or decoder114 deployment, the encoder 104 and decoder 114 may implement encodingand decoding techniques that were previously learned from training, ormay be (further) trained during deployment. The encoder 104 and decoder114 may be deployed in various application scenarios to performcommunication, using the encoding and decoding representations that werelearned during training. In some implementations, the encoder 104 and/ordecoder 114 is further updated during deployment based on real-timeperformance results such as reconstruction error, power consumption,traffic loading, propagation characteristics, delay, etc. Furtherdetails of deployment are described below, for example with reference toFIG. 2. In these cases, error feedback of loss functions or updatedmodel parameters may occur in some instances via a communications bus,or a protocol message within the wireless system which can be used toupdate the encoder 104 and/or decoder 114, along with information tohelp characterize the response of the channel 108.

In scenarios of approximated channel 120 deployment and encoder 104and/or decoder 114 training, the approximated channel 120 is deployedwhen the upper path shown in FIG. 1 is followed, i.e., when: (i) inputinformation 102 is passed through the encoder 104; (ii) the encoder 104produces the transmitted signal 130; (iii) the transmitted signal 130 ismodified by first operations 118; (iv) simulated transmission of themodified transmitted signal over the approximated channel 120 isperformed, producing the simulated received signal 142; (vi) thesimulated received signal 142 is modified by second operations 112;(vii) the modified, simulated received signal is passed through thedecoder 114; and (viii) the decoder 114 produces reconstructedinformation 114 that is an attempted reproduction of the inputinformation 102. During deployment, the approximated channel 120 is usedto compute a gradient of a loss or distance function between the inputinformation 102 and the reconstructed information 116. This gradient canbe used to update the machine-learning networks of the encoder 104 anddecoder 114 by, for example, back propagating parameters in thosenetworks. In some implementations, the channel machine-learning networkof the approximated channel 120 is further trained during deployment.Further details of deployment are described below, for example withreference to FIG. 2.

The input information 102 and reconstructed information 116 may be anysuitable form of information that is to be communicated over a channel,such as a stream of bits, packets, discrete-time signals, orcontinuous-time waveforms. Implementations disclosed herein are notlimited to any particular type of input information 102 andreconstructed information 116, and are generally applicable to learnencoding and decoding techniques for communicating a wide variety oftypes of information over the RF channel 108.

In some implementations, the encoder 104 and decoder 114 employ one ormore signal processing operations, which are suited to the type of RFcommunication domain. As examples, the encoder 104 and/or decoder 114may implement filtering, modulation, analog-to-digital (A/D) ordigital-to-analog (D/A) conversion, equalization, or other signalprocessing methods that may be suitable for a particular types of RFsignals or communication domains. In some implementations, the encoder104 and/or decoder 114 implement one or more transmit and receiveantennas, and other hardware or software suitable for transmittingsignals 130 and receiving signals 140 over the RF channel 108, such as,for example, a set of analog components with multiple inputs andmultiple outputs (MIMO). As such, the full system described herein alongwith the training process is directly applicable to MIMO and massiveMIMO systems, such as for candidate cellular fifth generation (5G), 5G+,sixth generation (6G), or 6G+, waveform design, and optimization anddeployment of various communications systems.

Therefore, in such scenarios, as shown in the example of FIG. 1, thetransmitted signal 130 and received signal 140 may represent actual RFwaveforms that are transmitted and received over the RF channel 108through one or more antennas. Thus, the encoder 104 and decoder 114 mayrepresent generalized mappings between input information 102 andreconstructed information 116, and the transmitted signal 130 and thereceived signal 140.

By contrast, in some implementations, the system 100 implements signalprocessing and RF transmission/reception processes separately from theencoder 104 and decoder 114. In such implementations, one or more signaltransmission and/or signal reception components, such as filtering,modulation, A/D or D/A conversion, single or multiple antennas, etc.,may be represented as part of the channel 108. The impairments in thechannel 108 accordingly may include transmitter/receiver effects, suchas filtering impairments, additive noise, or other impairments in thetransmitter and/or receiver components. Therefore, in such scenarios,the transmitted signal 130 and received signal 140 representintermediate representations of input information 102 and reconstructedinformation 116, and the channel 108 represents a general transformationof those intermediate representations of information to and from actualRF waveforms that are transmitted and received over an RF medium. Forexample, the transmitted signal 130 and received signal 140 mayrepresent basis coefficients for RF waveforms, time-domain samples of RFwaveforms, distributions over RF waveform values, or other intermediaterepresentations that may be transformed to and from RF waveforms.

In scenarios of approximated channel training and encoder 104 and/ordecoder 114 deployment, the transmitted signal 130 may be compared withthe received signal 140, and the channel machine-learning network of theapproximated channel may be trained (updated) based on results of thecomparison. In some implementations, updating the channelmachine-learning network of the approximated channel 120 is also basedon other factors, such as computational complexity of themachine-learning networks (which can be measured, for example, by thenumber of parameters, number of multiplies/adds, execution time,Kolmogorov complexity, or otherwise), historical information such asprevious inputs and outputs or channel states, transmission bandwidth orpower used to communicate over the channel 108, or various combinationsthereof and other metrics.

In scenarios of approximated channel deployment and encoder 104 and/ordecoder 114 training, the reconstructed information 116 may be comparedwith the input information 102, and the encoder 104 and/or the decoder114 may be trained (updated) based on results of the comparison. In someimplementations, updating the encoder 104 and/or decoder 114 is alsobased on other factors, such as computational complexity of themachine-learning networks (which can be measured, for example, by thenumber of parameters, number of multiplies/adds, execution time,Kolmogorov complexity, or otherwise), historical information such asprevious inputs and outputs or channel states, transmission bandwidth orpower used to communicate over the channel 108, or various combinationsthereof and other metrics.

As described in more detail with respect to FIG. 2, in someimplementations, the channel machine-learning network of theapproximated channel 120, and the encoder 104 and/or decoder 114networks are jointly trained.

As described in more detail with respect to FIG. 2, in someimplementations, the channel machine-learning network of theapproximated channel 120, and the encoder 104 and/or decoder 114networks are iteratively trained. When iteratively trained, the networksmay be updated in an iterative process such as such as stochasticgradient descent (SGD) or through some other means.

In some implementations, the approximated channel 120, the encoder 104,and the decoder 114 include artificial neural networks that consist ofone or more connected layers of parametric multiplications, divisions,summations, and non-linearities (such as rectified linear units orsigmoid functions). In such scenarios, updating the approximated channel120, the encoder 104, and/or decoder 114 may include updating weights ofthe neural network layers, or updating connectivity in the neuralnetwork layers, or other modifications of the neural networkarchitecture, so as to modify a mapping of inputs to outputs.

The encoder 104 and decoder 114 networks may be implemented using aneural network structure that is configured as an autoencoder. In thescenario of an autoencoder structure, the encoder 104 and decoder 114are jointly trained to learn best representations of information forcommunication over the channel 108. In general, however, the encoder anddecoder networks may be configured as separate networks in an encodernetwork and a decoder network, which may be jointly or iterativelytrained. During training, the encoder network and/or decoder network maybe updated by a network update process.

In general, the channel machine-learning network (also referred to as“channel network”), the encoder network, and/or decoder network mayinclude one or more collections of multiplications, divisions, andsummations or other operations of inputs and intermediate values,optionally followed by non-linearities (such as rectified linear units,sigmoid function, or otherwise) or other operations (e.g.,normalization), which may be arranged in a feed-forward manner or in amanner with feedback and in-layer connections (e.g., a recurrent neuralnetwork (RNN) where sequences of training information may be used insome instances). For example, a recurrent neural network may be along-short term memory (LSTM) neural network that includes one or moreLSTM memory blocks, or a quasi-recurrent neural network (QRNN) whichcombines elements of convolutional networks with recurrent networks.

Parameters and weight values in the networks may be used for a singlemultiplication, as in a fully connected dense neural network (DNN), orthey may be “tied” or replicated across multiple locations within thenetwork to form one or more receptive fields, such as in a convolutionalneural network (CNN), a dilated convolutional neural network, a residualnetwork unit, or similar. A collection of one or more of layers of anetwork may constitute both the encoder 104 and the decoder 114. Thespecific structure for the networks may be explicitly specified atdesign time, or may be selected from a plurality of possiblearchitecture candidates to ascertain the best performing candidate.

In some implementations, the approximated channel 120, the encoder 104,and the decoder 114 include a series of dense matrix multiplications.

The encoder 104 and the decoder 114 may be configured to encode anddecode using any suitable machine-learning technique. In general, theencoder 104 may be configured to learn a mapping from input information108 into a lower-dimensional or higher-dimensional representation as thetransmitted signal 112. Analogously, the decoder 114 may be configuredto learn a reverse mapping from a lower-dimensional orhigher-dimensional received signal 140 into the reconstructedinformation 116.

As an example, the mappings that are implemented in the encoder 104 anddecoder 114 may involve learning a set of basis functions for RFsignals. In such scenarios, for a particular set of basis functions, theencoder 104 may transform the input information 102 into a set of basiscoefficients corresponding to those basis functions, and the basiscoefficients may then be used to generate a transmitted RF waveform (forexample, by taking a weighted combination of the basis functionsweighted by the basis coefficients). Analogously, the decoder 114 maygenerate the reconstructed information 116 by generating a set of basiscoefficients from a received RF waveform (for example by takingprojections of the received RF waveform onto the set of basisfunctions). The basis functions themselves may be any suitableorthogonal or non-orthogonal set of basis functions, subject toappropriate constraints on energy, amplitude, bandwidth, or otherconditions.

During deployment of the encoder 104 and decoder 114, in someimplementations, the encoder 104 and/or decoder 114 utilizes simplifiedencoding and decoding techniques based on results of trainingmachine-learning networks. For example, the encoder 104 and/or decoder114 may utilize approximations or compact look up tables based on thelearned encoding/decoding mappings. In such deployment scenarios, theencoder 104 and/or decoder 114 may implement more simplified structures,rather than a full machine-learning network. For example, techniquessuch as distillation may be used to train smaller machine-learningnetworks which perform the same signal processing function. A similarapproach can be used to create more compact versions of the approximatedchannel 120 network (and of a discriminator network, as discussed inmore detail with respect to FIGS. 7-9).

In some implementations, the encoder 104 and/or decoder 114 includes oneor more fixed components or algorithms that are designed to facilitatecommunication over RF channels, such as expert synchronizers,equalizers, etc. As such, during training, the encoder 104 and/ordecoder 114 may be trained to learn encoding/decoding techniques thatare suitable for such fixed components or algorithms. Similarly, duringtraining, the approximated channel 120 may be trained to simulatechannel 108 by also taking into account the fixed components oralgorithms of the encoder 104 and/or decoder 114. During training, theapproximate channel 120 may also be trained to simulate channel 108 bytaking into account the components of the digital to analog converter106 and the analog to digital converter 110.

In some implementations, the encoder 104 and decoder 114 networksleverage prior knowledge of efficient network structures, methods ofsynchronization, estimation, or attention (i.e., the ability to focusresources on a certain subset of data, or to synchronize or canonicalizesubsets of information from the original received information, often ina learned way). Such knowledge of efficient network structures mayinclude connectivity of activations, layers, and/or assigned weights. Byleveraging this knowledge, the disclosed system can further reduce thetime and resources required for designing a communications system.

RF signals that are transmitted and received by system 100 may includeany suitable radio-frequency signal, such as acoustic signals, opticalsignals, or other analog waveforms. The spectrum of RF signals that areprocessed by system 100 may be in a range of 1 kHz to 300 GHz. Forexample, such RF signals include very low frequency (VLF) RF signalsbetween 1 kHz to 30 kHz, low frequency (LF) RF signals between 30 kHz to300 kHz, medium frequency (MF) RF signals between 300 kHz to 1 MHz, highfrequency (HF) RF signals between 1 MHz to 30 MHz, and higher-frequencyRF signals up to 300 GHz.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of adversarially training an RF system 200that includes a machine-learning encoder 204 and a machine-learningdecoder 212, and an approximated channel 210 having a machine-learningnetwork (“channel network”). The encoder 204 and the decoder 212 mayimplement encoding and decoding techniques that were learned by machinelearning networks (“encoder network” and “decoder network”) tocommunicate over a real-world RF channel (e.g., channel 108 as shown inFIG. 1). The approximated channel 210 has a machine-learning networktaught to approximate a real-world RF channel (e.g., channel 108 asshown in FIG. 1).

In some implementations, encoder 204 is encoder 104 as shown in FIG. 1.In some implementations, decoder 212 is decoder 114 as shown in FIG. 1.In some implementations, approximated channel 210 is approximatedchannel 120 as shown in FIG. 1. In some implementations, inputinformation 202 is input information 102 as shown in FIG. 1.

In some implementations, the networks of the encoder 204 and decoder 212are utilized for training to learn suitable encoding and decodingmappings, and such mappings may be implemented in a deployed systemusing more simplified encoders and decoders. For example, a deployedsystem may utilize using lookup tables at the encoder and distance-basedmetrics at the decoder, or other simplified forms of encoding anddecoding, that are designed based on results of training the encoder 204and decoder 212 networks.

The approximated channel 210 that is implemented during training may bea model of an RF channel that is obtained via simulation and/or based onreal-world RF channel data (e.g., channel 108 as shown in FIG. 1). Forexample, in some implementations, training begins with a simulatedchannel model and training the encoder network and the decoder networkbased on simulated propagation models reflecting a real worldpropagation environment or emitter data. The encoder network and thedecoder network may then be further trained against a real channel wherehardware is used with a training feedback loop.

In some implementations, the approximated channel 210 includes effectsof transmitter and receiver components, such as filtering, modulation,etc. For example, in scenarios where a simulated channel is used fortraining, an analytic channel impairment model may be utilized that fitsa specific set of hardware/software and wireless deployment conditions.As such, the training in FIG. 2 may train the encoder network of encoder204 and the decoder network of decoder 212 to operate under differentchannel conditions, as well as for different real-world transmitter andreceiver scenarios.

During training, the encoder network and the decoder network may eitherbe jointly trained or iteratively trained. For example, the encodernetwork and decoder network may be jointly trained as an auto-encoder(as described in regards to FIG. 1, above). When jointly trained, bothnetworks may be updated at the same time, at a similar time, and/orduring the same iteration of the training process. In someimplementations, the encoder network and decoder network areseparately/iteratively trained. In such scenarios, one of the networksmay be fixed, either by previous training or by a transmission/receptionscheme, while the other network is trained to learn an encoding/decodingstrategy that is appropriate for the fixed counterpart network.

For example, in instances of iterative training, the encoder network maybe fixed to generate a particular mapping of input information 202 forradio transmission 206, and the decoder network may be trained to learna mapping from the outputted RF signal of the approximated channel 210(e.g., simulated received signal 142 as shown in FIG. 1) toreconstructed information (e.g., reconstructed information 116 as shownin FIG. 1) that is best suited for the fixed network of encoder 204. Insome implementations, the input information 202 is represented bytraining data that is utilized for training purposes. The training datamay have a different form than the input information 202, butnonetheless may represent the input information 202 for purposes oftraining. In such scenarios, the encoder network may processes thetraining data that represents the input information 202, and the decodernetwork may generate reconstructed information as a reconstruction ofthe input information 202 represented by the training data.

Similarly, during training, the channel network of the approximatedchannel 210 may either be jointly trained or iteratively trained withthe encoder network and/or decoder network. In some implementations, thechannel network is jointly trained with the encoder network and/ordecoder network, such that a combined loss of the system 200 iscalculated (e.g., by combined loss function 222) and minimized. In someimplementations, the channel network of the approximated channel 210 isseparately/iteratively trained with the encoder 204 and/or decoder 212network(s), where the channel network and the encoding and/or decodingnetworks have competing “adversarial” objectives. In such scenarios, oneor more of the networks may be fixed, either by previous training or bya transmission/reception scheme, while one or more of the other networksare trained to either learn an encoding/decoding strategy that isappropriate for the fixed counterpart network(s) (e.g., for training theencoding and/or decoding network) or to learn the transfer function ofone or more analog electronic radio components and/or wirelesstransmission channels (e.g., for training the channel network).

For example, the encoder network and decoder network may be fixed togenerate a particular mapping of input information 202 for radiotransmission 206, and the channel network may be trained to learn thetransfer function of one or more analog electronic radio componentsand/or wireless transmission channels (e.g., channel 108 as shown inFIG. 1). In some implementations, the input information 202 isrepresented by training data that is utilized for training purposes. Thetraining data may have a different form than the input information 202,but nonetheless may represent the input information 202 for purposes oftraining. In such scenarios, the encoder network may process thetraining data that represents the input information 202, and the decodernetwork may generate reconstructed information as a reconstruction ofthe input information 202 represented by the training data.

The output of the encoder 204 may be a signal for transmission orsimulated transmission (e.g., transmitted signal 130 as shown in FIG.1). This signal may be provided to radio transmission 206. Radiotransmission 206 may include a series of operations, including, forexample, converting the signal from digital to analog form (e.g., bydigital to analog converter 106 as shown in FIG. 1), amplifying thesignal, and sending the signal by antenna. Radio transmission 206 maytransmit the signal over various radio components and/or wirelesstransmission channels (e.g., channel 108 as shown in FIG. 1). Thissignal may be altered as a result of being transmitted. Radio reception208 receives the altered signal and may convert it form an analog formatto digital format. Radio reception 208 may include, for example, ananalog to digital converter (e.g., analog to digital converter 110 asshown in FIG. 1), and/or various analog electronic components (e.g., anantenna). Radio reception 208 outputs a received signal (e.g., receivedsignal 140 as shown in FIG. 1).

The output of the encoder 204 may also be provided to the approximatedchannel 210. The approximated channel 210 may produce a simulatedreceived signal (e.g., simulated received signal 142 as shown in FIG.1). The simulated received signal may be provided to the decoder 212.Decoder 212 may produce reconstructed information (e.g., reconstructedinformation 116) that attempts to reproduce input information 202.

The system 200 may perform a first distance computation 214 between thereceived signal outputted from radio reception 208 and the simulatedreceived signal outputted from the approximated channel 210. The firstdistance computation 214 may be a loss function. The first distancecomputation 214 may be any suitable measure of distance between the tworeceived signals, such as (i) cross-entropy, (ii) a geometric distancemetric, (iii) a measure of probability distribution, or (iv) a measuredistance between characterizing the two received signals (e.g. mean,variance, envelope statistics, phase statistics, etc.). The results ofthe first distance computation 214 are provided to approximated channelupdates 218 in order to update the channel machine-learning network ofthe approximated channel 210. Here, the objective of the approximatedchannel updates 218 is to minimize the first distance computation 214 infuture iterations of the training process.

The system 200 may also compute a second distance computation 216between the input information 202 and the reconstructed informationoutputted from the decoder 212. The second distance computation 216 maybe a loss function. The second distance computation 216 may be anysuitable measure of distance between the input information 202 and thereconstructed information, such as (i) cross-entropy, (ii) mean squarederror, (iii) other geometric distance metric (e.g., MAE), or (iv)another measure of accuracy of the reconstructed bits, codewords, ormessages of the input information 202 from the reconstructedinformation. The results of the second distance computation 216 areprovided to encoder/decoder updates 220 in order to update themachine-learning networks of the encoder 204 and decoder 212. Here, theobjective of the encoder/decoder updates 220 is to minimize the seconddistance computation 216 in future iterations of the training process.

In some implementations, additional loss terms are used in the firstdistance computation 214 and/or the second distance computation 216 incombination with such primary loss terms, for example to accomplishsecondary objectives (e.g., to reduce interference imposed upon asecondary receiver, or to improve favorable signal properties such aspeak to average power ratio (PAPR)).

In addition to achieving an objective that includes the first distancecomputation 214/loss function and/or the second distance computation216/loss function, the system 200 may also be configured to achieve anobjective related to other performance measures, such as power,bandwidth, complexity, or other performance metrics that are relevantfor communication. In some implementations, the system 200 is configuredto achieve a desired trade-off between different performance metrics.For example, achieving such a trade-off may be implemented using anobjective function that combines different metrics, for example as aweighted combination of the metrics. In addition or as an alternative,this trade-off may be achieved by selecting a model according to userpreferences or application specifications. In addition or as analternative, the system 200 may implement one or more hard constraintson performance metrics, such as constraints on power, bandwidth,reconstruction error, etc.

The first distance computation 214 may be performed iteratively orjointly with the second distance computation.

In implementations where the first distance computation 214 and thesecond distance computation 216 are performed iteratively/separately,one may be performed before the other. For example, approximated channelupdates 218 may receive the output of the first distance computation 214and determine updates for approximated channel 210 before the seconddistance computation 216 is performed. In this example, the updates mayalso be sent to the approximated channel 210 and implemented by theapproximated channel 210 before the second distance computation 216 isperformed.

In these implementations, one or more networks may be fixed (e.g.,parameter/layer weights of the networks are fixed and placed and notupdated during the training process) while one or more other networksare updated. For example, where a first distance computation 214 isperformed and approximated channel updates 218 are determined, thechannel network of approximated channel 210 may be updated (e.g., theparameter/layer weights of the network may be updated) while the encoder204 and decoder 212 networks are fixed.

In implementations where the first distance computation 214 is performedjointly with the second distance computation 216, the first distancecomputation 214 and the second distance computation 216 may be performedat the same time, at substantially the same time, and/or during the sameiteration of the training process. In addition, in these scenarios, thesystem 200 may perform a combined distance computation 222.

In some implementations, the system 200 also performs the combineddistance computation 222. The combined distance computation may be asummation of the results of the first distance computation 214 and thesecond distance computation 216. The results of the combined distancecomputation 222 may be provided to approximated channel updates 218 andencoder/decoder updates 220 in order to update the machine-learningnetwork of the approximated channel 210 and the machine-learningnetworks of the encoder 204 and decoder 212, respectively. Here, theobjective of the approximated channel updates 218 and encoder/decoderupdates 220 is to minimize the combined distance computation 222. Insome implementations, a combined distance computation 222 is calculatedbut is not outputted to the approximated channel updates 218 nor theencoder/decoder updates 220.

The network update process (e.g., approximated channel updates 218 andencoder/decoder updates 220) may update the channel network, the encodernetwork, and/or the decoder network based on the various performancemetrics. This updating may include updates to the network architectures,parameters, or weights of the networks. For example, the updating mayinclude updating weights or parameters in one or more layers of thenetworks, selecting machine-learning models for the networks, orselecting a specific network architecture, such as choice of layers,layer-hyperparameters, or other network features. As discussed, updatingmay be implemented on the channel network and the encoder and/or decodernetwork(s), in a joint or iterative manner.

As discussed above, the updates performed by the network update process(e.g., approximated channel updates 218 and/or encoder/decoder updates220) may be performed during training, and/or may be performed duringdeployment to further update the channel network, the encoder network,and/or decoder network based on real-world deployment performanceresults.

In some implementations, the network update process (e.g., approximatedchannel updates 218 and/or encoder/decoder updates 220) updates thechannel network, the encoder network, and/or decoder network to achievea desired objective function(s), which may include loss function(s)(e.g., first distance computation 214 and second distance computation216) and other performance metrics discussed above. In someimplementations, the network update process utilizes an optimizationmethod such as one of evolution (e.g., a genetic algorithm), gradientdescent, stochastic gradient descent, or other solution technique.

As an example of gradient-based updates, the network update process(e.g., approximated channel updates 218 and/or encoder/decoder updates220) may calculate a rate of change of the objective function(s)relative to variations in the encoder network and/or decoder network,for example by calculating or approximating a gradient of the objectivefunction. Such variations may include, for example, variations in theweights of one or more network layers, or other network architecturechoices. Here, where the approximated channel 210 is based on real RFchannel data and does not have a closed form gradient solution, thegradient of the objective function(s) is estimated using the channelmachine-learning network of the approximated channel 210.

Based on the calculated rate of change of the objective function(s), thenetwork update process (e.g., approximated channel updates 218 and/orencoder/decoder updates 220) may determine a first variation for theencoder network and/or a second variation for the decoder network. Thesevariations may be computed, for example, using Stochastic GradientDescent (SGD) style optimizers, such as Adam, AdaGrad, Nesterov SGD, orothers. In some implementations, these variations are computed usingother scalable methods for direct search, such as evolutionaryalgorithms or particle swarm optimizations.

Once the variations have been determined, the network update processthen applies those variations to the encoder network and/or the decodernetwork. For example, the network update process may update at least oneencoding network weight in one or more layers of the encoder network,and/or at least one decoding network weight in one or more layers of thedecoder network.

In general, updating the channel network, the encoder network, and/orthe decoder network is not limited to updating network weights, andother types of updates may be implemented. For example, updating thenetworks may include selecting a machine-learning model for the encodingnetwork, from among a plurality of encoding models, and selecting amachine-learning model for the decoder network, from among a pluralityof decoding models. In such implementations, selecting machine-learningmodels may include selecting a specific network architecture, such aschoice of layers, layer-hyperparameters, or other network features.

By training the encoder network and/or decoder network over theapproximated channel 210 having a channel network and emulating areal-world RF channel, the encoder network and decoder network may beoptimized to communicate over a particular RF channel even for difficultcases (e.g., the transfer function of the component or wireless effectis hard to model or compensate for accurately or at low computationalcomplexity in traditional systems, often leading to performancedegradation). By using an approximated channel 210 having a channelnetwork to train the encoder 204 and/or decoder 212 networks, the needfor a closed form channel model or assumption about the channel effectson the system 200 are removed.

In some implementations, the encoder network and the decoder network arealso trained when a real-world channel is used (e.g., when the lowerpath is followed in FIG. 1). In such implementations, additionaltransmission and reception components (either hardware or software) maybe implemented to transmit and receive analog RF waveforms over the realchannel. Such transmit and receive components may be implemented eitherin the encoder network and decoder network, or their effects may beincluded in the channel effects that are accounted for in theapproximated channel 210.

Training the channel machine-learning network (also referred to as“channel network”), the encoder machine-learning network (also referredto as “encoder network”), and/or the decoder machine-learning network(also referred to as “decoder network”) may begin with any suitable setof initial conditions. For example, the training may begin with a randomset of basis functions subject to certain conditions. Alternatively, thetraining may begin with a fixed set of basis functions, such as commonlyused RF communication basis functions including Quadrature Phase-ShiftKeying (QPSK) or Gaussian Binary Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK),orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM), or other fixed setof basis functions.

During training, the encoder network and the decoder network attempt tolearn improved basis functions, according to results of encoding anddecoding. Training the encoder 204 and decoder 214 may involveoptimizing over a set of basis functions or over different sets of basisfunctions, for example using greedy search or other optimization-typealgorithm.

In some implementations, the input information 202 is chosen from atraining set of information. The input information 202 is, in someimplementations, limited to a particular class of information, such asbinary information, discrete-time information, analog waveforms, orother class of information. In such scenarios, the system 200 will betrained to learn communication encoding and decoding techniques that aretuned to communicate that particular class of information (over aparticular channel). By training on different types of input information202 and for a particular approximated channel 210 (e.g., that mayemulates a particular real-world channel), the system 200 may be trainedto learn near-optimal encoding and decoding operations for a particularcommunication scenario.

The distance computations/loss functions (e.g., first distancecomputation 214, second distance computation 216, combined distancecomputation 222) may be any suitable measure, or combination ofmeasures, of distance between either the input information 202 and thereconstructed information, or the received signal and the simulatedreceived signal. For example, the distance computations/loss functionsmay include cross-entropy, mean squared error (MSE), clipped MSE whichpenalizes predicted values according to MSE but only for values whichfall on the wrong side of a decision threshold, or an exponential lossfunction that penalizes loss exponentially, or other suitable distancemetric(s).

In addition, as discussed above, other performance metrics may beincorporated into training, for example as part of the distancecomputations/loss functions and/or as hard constraints, etc. Forexample, such performance metrics may include bit error rate (BER) as afunction of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), communication bandwidth,communication power, spectral efficiency (the number of bits per secondthat can be transmitted over a fixed bandwidth channel at a specificSNR). Any one or combinations of such metrics may be utilized duringtraining as part of the distance computations/loss functions (e.g., as aweighted combination) and/or as hard constraints in addition to thedistance computations/loss functions.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example system 300 for training signal andcommunication channel models 302 using a real-world RF channel 312without a common timing source. The signal and communication channelmodels 302 may include an approximated channel (e.g., approximatedchannel 120 as shown in FIG. 1, or approximated channel 210 as shown inFIG. 2) having a machine-learning network (“channel network”). Thesignal and communication channel models 302 may include an encoder model304 (e.g., encoder 104 as shown in FIG. 1, or encoder 204 as shown inFIG. 2) having a machine-learning network (“encoder network”). Thesignal and communication channel models 302 may include a decoder model(e.g., decoder 114 as shown in FIG. 1, or decoder 214 as shown in FIG.2) having a machine-learning network (“decoder network”).

The communication channel model 302 may by trained through an iterativeprocess, where no timing reference (e.g., a timing source) is sharedbetween a radio transmitter (not shown; see FIG. 4) and a radio receiver(not shown; see FIG. 4).

As shown, a signal encoder model 304 is used with chosen or randominformation (e.g., input information 102 as shown in FIG. 1, or inputinformation 202 as shown in FIG. 2) to produce a modulated informationsource 306 of encoded information to transmit over the radio channel(e.g., transmitted signal 130 as shown in FIG. 1).

A reference tone is inserted into the encoded information at a knowntime offset from the encoded information (e.g., immediately precedingit) by the reference insertion 308 operation. The reference tone may bea pseudorandom (PN) chip, or other known preamble or reference tone.“Exploration” signals, such as Gaussian noise can be used to explore thechannel input value space (and thus get a better characterization of thechannel response for a wide range of possible input values), where therandom noise can be derived from a common value, seed, or sequence atthe transmitter or receiver.

The encoded information having the inserted reference tone is thenconverted from digital form into an analog radio signal using a digitalto analog converter 310 (e.g., digital to analog converter 106 as shownin FIG. 1), passing through a series of possible other analogcomponents, such as amplifiers or filters, among others, and passingover a wireless (or wired) real-world channel 312 (e.g., channel 108 asshown in FIG. 1) before arriving (possibly through other RF analogcomponents) at an analog to digital converter 314 (e.g., analog todigital converter 110 as shown in FIG. 1) where the signal is convertedback to digital form.

A reference synchronization 316 operation may then be performed in orderto determine the arrival time, frequency, phase, angle, antennacombining scheme, or otherwise of the encoded and transmittedinformation having the inserted reference tone. Using the arrival timeand the known offset time of the reference tone, the timing (andfrequency) of the encoded and transmitted information can be determined.

This encoded and transmitted information can then be recovered through aprocess of aligned signal association 318, where, for example, thetime-aligned (and possibly frequency-aligned) signal is extracted fromthe received digital signal using the reference synchronizationinformation from reference synchronization 316, and can be associatedwith the encoded and transmitted information from the modulationinformation source 306. This association may result, for example, informing a tuple of (s, r), where s is the encoded and transmittedinformation and r is the received information, where both the s and rare time-aligned and frequency-aligned with each other to a high degreeof precision.

This tuple, (s, r) can then be used in the distance/model update process320 in order to update the signal and communication0 channel models 302,for instance by first updating the weights of a channel approximationnetwork (e.g., approximated channel 120 as shown in FIG. 1, orapproximated channel 210 as shown in FIG. 2) and then updating theencoder 304 and decoder network weights through the iterative process asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example system 300 for training signal andcommunication channel models 302 using a real-world RF channel 312 witha common timing source. The signal and communication channel models 302may include an approximated channel (e.g., approximated channel 120 asshown in FIG. 1, or approximated channel 210 as shown in FIG. 2) havinga machine-learning network (“channel network”). The signal andcommunication channel models 302 may include an encoder model 304 (e.g.,encoder 104 as shown in FIG. 1, or encoder 204 as shown in FIG. 2)having a machine-learning network (“encoder network”). The signal andcommunication channel models 302 may include a decoder model (e.g.,decoder 114 as shown in FIG. 1, or decoder 214 as shown in FIG. 2)having a machine-learning network (“decoder network”).

The communication channel model 302 may by trained through an iterativeprocess, where a timing reference, such as timing source 322 is sharedbetween a radio transmitter (not shown; see FIG. 4) and a radio receiver(not shown; see FIG. 4).

As shown, a signal encoder model 304 is used with chosen or randominformation (e.g., input information 102 as shown in FIG. 1, or inputinformation 202 as shown in FIG. 2) to produce a modulated informationsource 306 of encoded information to transmit over the radio channel(e.g., transmitted signal 130 as shown in FIG. 1).

The encoded information is then converted from digital form into ananalog radio signal using a digital to analog converter 310 (e.g.,digital to analog converter 106 as shown in FIG. 1), passing through aseries of possible other analog components, such as amplifiers orfilters, among others, and passing over a wireless (or wired) real-worldchannel 312 (e.g., channel 108 as shown in FIG. 1) before arriving(possibly through other RF analog components) at an analog to digitalconverter 314 (e.g., analog to digital converter 110 as shown in FIG. 1)where the signal is converted back to digital form.

Both the digital to analog converter 310 and the analog to digitalconverter 314 receive a common timing source 322, which can be, forexample, a 10 megahertz (MHz) Pulse-per-second (PPS) signal from a testsignal generator passed through a splitter. Alternatively, the timingsource 322 can be derived from an external signal, such as a globalpositioning system (GPS) signal or another radio communications systemand provided to both the digital to analog converter 310 and the analogto digital converter 314.

Because of the common timing source 322, the sampling times of thedigital to analog converter 310 and the analog to digital converter 314are known to be nearly the same. That is, the sampling times of bothconverters are within some error tolerance (e.g., less than 1 nanosecondof timing jitter).

The encoded and transmitted information can then be recovered through aprocess of aligned signal association 318, where, for example, thetime-aligned (and possibly frequency-aligned) signal is extracted fromthe received digital signal using the knowledge of timing being nearidentical from the digital to analog converter 310 and the analog todigital converter 314, and may be associated with the encoded andtransmitted information from the modulation information source 306. Thisassociation may result, for example, in forming a tuple of (s, r), wheres is the encoded and transmitted information and r is the receivedinformation, and both are now time-aligned and frequency-aligned witheach other to a high degree of precision.

The tuple, (s, r) can then be used in the distance/model update process320 in order to update the signal and communication channel models 302,for example, by first updating the weights of a channel approximationnetwork (e.g., approximated channel 120 as shown in FIG. 1, orapproximated channel 210 as shown in FIG. 2) and then updating theencoder 304 and decoder network weights through the iterative process asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of deploying learned encoder 104 anddecoder 114 machine-learning networks in a functional RF communicationssystem 400. The functional RF communications system 400 may be, forexample, a cellular phone, a radio, a router, or a modem, among otherssystem. The communications system 400 uses learned encoding (e.g.,encoding and/or decoding machine-learning networks) for purposes ofwirelessly communicating information.

In some implementations, the communications system 400 implements theencoder 104 and the decoder 114 from FIG. 1 after their machine-learningnetworks have been trained iteratively or jointly with an approximatedchannel (e.g., approximated channel 120 as shown in FIG. 1) having amachine-learning network. In these implementations, the approximatedchannel is trained to emulate channel 108.

In the disclosed example of FIG. 4, the communications system 400includes a radio transmitter 402 and a radio receiver 412, which can be,for example, a cellular handset and a cellular base stationrespectively. The radio transmitter 402 has a digital processor/logiccircuit 404 (“first digital processor”). The radio receiver 412 also hasa digital processor/logic circuit 414 (“second digital processor”). Eachof the first and second digital processors may be, for example, anembedded processor, an FPGA, a DSP chip, logic inside a customer ASIC, aneuromorphic processor, a tensor processor, or other similar digitallogic system.

The encoder 104 is deployed in the first digital processor 404 and thedecoder is deployed in the second digital processor 414. In someimplementations, the first digital processor 404 and the second digitalprocessor 414 are transceivers which include both decoders and encodersfor forward and reverse link connections to each other, or to a networkof transceiver devices.

In some implementations, the radio transmitter 402 employs other analogRF/IF devices 406 on the transmit path, e.g., filters, amplifiers,mixers, etc., while the radio receiver 412 employs similar analog RF/IFdevices 410 (e.g., radio frequency and/or intermediate frequencydevices) on the received signal before digitization. RF/IF devices 406and 410 may be part of channel 108 (and account for some of the signalimpairment across the channel), along with analog radio component(s)and/or wireless transmission channels 408.

Second operations 112 may be performed on the received digital signal(i.e., the signal outputted from the analog to digital converter 110)before the signal is decoded by decoder 114. Second operations 112 mayinclude various pre-processing and/or normalization operations, such asdetection, synchronization, normalization, filtering, tuning, etc.Generally, these second operations 112 are realized as digital signalprocessing (DSP) routines. However, second operations 112 can alsoinvolve additional neural network based pre-processing tasks.

In some implementations, other operations (e.g., first operations 118 asshown in FIG. 1) are performed on the output signal of the encoder 104before it is passed to the digital to analog converter 106.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example method 500 for training amachine-learning network of an approximated communications channel of anRF system. The training method 500 may be performed by one or moreprocessors, such as one or more CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, FPGAs, ASICs, TPUs, orneuromorphic chips or vector accelerators that execute instructionsencoded on a computer storage medium.

In some implementations, the method 500 is performed by the componentsof system 100 (and/or system 200, and/or system 400), such as encoder104 to produce transmitted signal 130, digital to analog converter 106to convert the transmitted signal 130 to an analog signal, real-worldchannel 108 to have the analog signal transmitted over, analog todigital converter 110 to produce received signal 140, and decoder 114 toreconstruct the input information 102.

Accordingly, the method 500 is described with respect to components ofthe system 100 (and/or system 200, and/or system 400). However, themethod 500 also can be performed by other systems.

The method 500 includes obtaining first information (502). For example,first information may be information that is to be communicated over anRF channel. As discussed above, the first information may be anysuitable discrete-time, analog, discrete-valued, or continuous-valuedinformation, such as input information 102. For example, in someinstances, this input information may be whitened discrete bits orsymbols, or in other cases, the input information may follow thedistribution of a non-whitened information source. As previouslydiscussed in regards to FIG. 2, above, in some implementations, thefirst information is represented by training data that is utilized fortraining purposes. In such scenarios, the training data may have adifferent form than the first information, but nonetheless may representthe first information for purposes of training.

An encoder machine-learning network is used to process this firstinformation to generate a first RF signal (504). For example, asdiscussed above, in some implementations the first information isrepresented by training data, in which case the encoder machine-learningnetwork processes the training data representing the first information.Furthermore, as discussed above, the generated first RF signal mayrepresent an analog RF waveform that is transmitted over a channel, ormay be an intermediate representation (e.g., samples, basiscoefficients, distributions over RF waveforms, etc.) that undergoesfurther processing (e.g., filtering, D/A conversion, modulation, etc.)to generate an analog RF waveform. This encoding process may utilize anysuitable mapping from an input information space into an RF signalspace, as discussed in regards to FIG. 2, above. The first RF signal maybe transmitted signal 130 as shown in FIG. 1. The first RF signal may bethe output of the encoder 204 as shown in FIG. 2 (or encoder 104 asshown in FIGS. 1 and 4). The first RF signal may be the output of radiotransmission 206 as shown in FIG. 2.

The method 500 further includes transmitting the first RF signal througha first communications channel (506). For example, first communicationschannel may include a single wireless transmission channel, multiplewireless transmission channels, various analog radio components, or acombination of one or more transmission channels and analog radiocomponents. First communications channel may be a real-worldcommunications channel, such as, for example, a wireless local areanetwork (WLAN) channel, a Wi-Fi channel, a Bluetooth channel, a cellularnetwork channel (e.g., one implementing GSM or UMTS technology), etc.First communications channel may be channel 108 as shown in FIGS. 1 and4, or channel 312 as shown in FIGS. 3A-3B.

The method 500 further includes determining a second RF signal thatrepresents the first RF signal having been altered by transmissionthrough the first communication channel (508). For example, in trainingscenarios, the effects of the first communication channel may beimplemented by a model of a channel obtained by simulation and/or realchannel data, or may be implemented by a real-world communicationchannel. As discussed above, the second RF signal may represent ananalog RF waveform that is received over a channel, or may be anintermediate representation (e.g., samples, basis coefficients,distributions over RF waveforms etc.) that is a result of processing(e.g., filtering, sampling, equalizing, etc.) a received analog RFwaveform. The second RF signal may be received signal 140 as shown inFIG. 1. The second RF signal may be the output of radio reception 208 asshown in FIG. 2.

The method 500 further includes simulating transmission of the first RFsignal over a second communication channel implementing a channelnetwork, the second communication channel representing a model of thefirst communications channel (510). For example, the secondcommunications channel can be an approximated channel, such as, forexample, approximated channel 120 as shown in FIG. 1 or approximatedchannel 210 as shown in FIG. 2.

The method 500 further includes determining a simulated RF signal thatrepresents the first RF signal having been altered by transmissionthrough the second communications channel (512). For example, thesimulated RF signal may be the simulated received signal 142 as shown inFIG. 1. The simulated RF signal may be the output of the approximatedchannel 210 as shown in FIG. 2.

The method 500 further includes calculating a first measure of distancebetween the second RF signal and the simulated RF signal (514). Forexample, this measure of distance may be the first distance computation214 as shown in FIG. 2. This measure of distance may be implemented as aloss function and may represent a difference or error between the secondRF signal (e.g., received signal 140 as shown in FIG. 1) and thesimulated RF signal (e.g., simulated received signal 142 as shown inFIG. 1). As examples, the measure of distance may include cross-entropy,a geometric distance metric, a measure of probability distribution, or ameasure distance between characterizing the two received signals (e.g.mean, variance, envelope statistics, phase statistics, etc.).

The method 500 further includes updating the channel network using thefirst measure of distance (516). For example, this update may be appliedto the channel network in a joint or iterative manner with the encodernetwork (and/or the decoder network). The updates may generally includeupdating any suitable machine-learning network feature of the channelnetwork, such as network weights, architecture choice, machine-learningmodel, or other parameter or connectivity design, as discussed inregards to FIG. 2, above. This update may be approximated channelupdates 218 as shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example method 600 for training anencoder machine-learning network and/or a decoder machine-learningnetwork. The training method 600 may be performed by one or moreprocessors, such as one or more CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, FPGAs, ASICs, TPUs, orneuromorphic chips or vector accelerators that execute instructionsencoded on a computer storage medium.

In some implementations, the method 600 is performed by the componentsof system 100 (and/or system 200, and/or system 400), such as encoder104 to produce transmitted signal 130, digital to analog converter 106to convert the transmitted signal 130 to an analog signal, real-worldchannel 108 to have the analog signal transmitted over, analog todigital converter 110 to produce received signal 140, and decoder 114 toreconstruct the input information 102.

Accordingly, the method 600 is described with respect to components ofthe system 100 (and/or system 200, and/or system 400). However, themethod 600 also can be performed by other systems.

In some implementations, method 600 follows or directly follows method500 as shown in FIG. 5.

The method 600 further includes using a decoder machine-learning networkto process the simulated RF signal and generates second information thatis a reconstruction of the first information (602). For example, aspreviously discussed in regards to FIG. 2, in some implementations, thefirst information (e.g., first information from method 500 as shown inFIG. 5) is represented by training data that is utilized for trainingpurposes. In such scenarios, the input training data may have adifferent form than the original first information, but nonetheless thedecoder may generate the second information as a reconstruction of thefirst information that is represented by the training data. Thisdecoding process may utilize any suitable mapping from an RF signalspace into reconstructed information space, as discussed in regards toFIG. 2, above. The decoder may be decoder 114 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4.The decoder may be decoder 212 as shown in FIG. 2.

The method 600 further includes calculating a second measure of distancebetween the second information and the first information (604). Forexample, this measure of distance may be the second distance computation216 as shown in FIG. 2. This measure of distance may be implemented as aloss function and may represent a difference or error between the secondinformation (e.g., reconstructed information 116 as shown in FIG. 1) andthe first information (e.g., input information 102 as shown in FIG. 1).As examples, the measure of distance may include cross-entropy, meansquared error, other geometric distance metric (e.g., MAE), or anothermeasure of accuracy of the reconstructed bits, codewords, or messages ofthe input information 202 from the reconstructed information.

The method 600 further includes updating at least one of the encodermachine-learning network or the decoder machine-learning network basedon the second measure of distance (606). For example, this update may beapplied to the encoder network and/or the decoder network in a joint oriterative manner (with respect to each other or with respect to thechannel network of method 500 as shown in FIG. 5), or individually, asdiscussed above. The updates may generally include updating any suitablemachine-learning network feature of the encoder network and/or decodernetwork, such as network weights, architecture choice, machine-learningmodel, or other parameter or connectivity design, as discussed inregards to FIG. 2, above. As an example, in some implementations, if theencoder network and/or decoder network are trained to learn a set ofbasis functions for communicating over the RF channel, then the updateprocess includes updating the set of basis functions that are utilizedin the encoder network and/or decoder network. This update may beencoder/decoder updates 220 as shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of deploying a system 700 that includes areal-world channel 704, an approximated channel 706, and a discriminator708. The approximated channel 706 has a machine-learning network(“channel network”) and the discriminator 708 has a machine-learningnetwork (“discriminator network”). The approximated channel 706 and thediscriminator 708 may form a generative adversarial network (GAN), wherethe channel network of the approximated channel 706 servers as aconditional generator network (e.g., generating representative outputsof the channel conditioned on possible input values such as transmittedsymbol values, or locations of transmission or reception, or otherinputs characterizing the transmission).

Discriminator 708 may be a binary classifier used to accuratelydistinguish between signals that have been produced/altered by channel704 from those that have been produced/altered by approximated channel706. In some implementations, in addition to or in place of a binaryclassifier output, discriminator 708 indicates a degree of similaritybetween channel 704 and approximated channel 706. For example,discriminator 708 may output a percentage indicating how close theapproximated channel output 712 is to the channel output 710 (e.g., 98%would indicate that the channel 704 and approximated channel 706 arevery similar, or near identical).

Channel 704 may represent a real-world channel or a function of areal-world channel, having, for example, complicated nonlinear effectsof devices, propagation, interference, distortion or other commonchannel impairments. Channel 704 may include a single wirelesstransmission channel. Channel 108 may include multiple wirelesstransmission channels. Channel 108 may include various analog radiocomponents. Channel 108 may include a combination of various analogradio components and one or more wireless transmission channels.

Channel input 702 may be a signal for transmission, such as an output ofan encoder (e.g., transmitted signal 130 as shown in FIG. 1).Analogously, approximated channel output 712 may represent a simulatedreceived signal (e.g., simulated received signal 142) that attempts tomatch a received signal (e.g., received signal 140 as shown in FIG. 1).

As shown in FIG. 7, channel input 702 is provided to both the channel704 and the approximated channel 706. The output of the channel 704,channel output 710 is provided to the discriminator 708. Thediscriminator is also provided channel input 702. The discriminator 708is also provided the output of the approximated channel 706, i.e.,approximated channel output 712. By providing the discriminator 708 boththe channel input 702 and the channel output 710, the discriminator 708is able to more accurately discriminate between channel output 710 andapproximated channel output 712, than when its input is restricted tothe channel output 710 (and approximated channel output 712). However,in some implementations, the discriminator 708 does not have access toor is not provided the channel input 702. Whenever the discriminator 708receives the channel output 710 and/or the approximated channel output712, it attempts to determine whether the respective signal/output wasproduced/altered by the channel 704 or the approximated channel 706. Forexample, the discriminator 708 may correctly determine that approximatedchannel output 712 was produced/altered by the approximated channel 706and outputs a binary result, e.g., 1 indicating that it believes theoutput came from the approximated channel 706. The result of thediscriminator 708 may be provided to the approximated channel 706 inorder to assist in updating the channel network of the approximatedchannel 706.

As will be discussed in more detail with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9,during training, the channel network may be trained to emulate channel704 such that the differences/loss between the channel output 710 andthe approximated channel output 712 is minimized. The discriminatornetwork of discriminator 708 is trained to accurately predict whether areceived signal (e.g., channel output 710 or approximated channel output712) was produced by the channel 704 or the approximated channel 706.The discriminator network and the channel network may be jointly oriteratively trained. The channel network may also by trained byleveraging the topology of the discriminator 708. Numerous methods usedin GAN literature may be used to train or improve the training of thesenetworks. For instance, the WGAN-GP method may be used here toaccelerate convergence and improve stability of the competingobjectives.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a network structure 800 of anapproximated communication channel 706 having a variationalmachine-learning network (“variational network”). The variationalmachine-learning network may be a generator network as part of a GAN(see discussion of FIG. 7 above).

The network structure 800 uses one or more layers (e.g., networklayer(s) 802, network layer(s) 810, one or more hidden layers havinglatent space 806 and latent distribution parameters 804, etc.) orneurons that form a variational network. The output of each layer isused as input to the next layer in the network. Each layer of thenetwork generates an output from a received input in accordance withcurrent values of a respective set of parameters. For example, in someimplementations, the variational network includes a plurality ofnetworks that may be collectively or iteratively trained. In someimplementations, network layer(s) 802 and network layer(s) arefully-connected rectified linear units (ReLU) layers.

The channel network is a variational machine-learning network because itimplements a sampler 808 operation that randomly samples a latent space806 from latent distribution parameters 804. Latent distributionparameters 804 and latent space 806, as well as the sampler 808 itselfmay be positioned in a hidden layer of the network or another non-hiddenlayer. The variational network uses inputs and/or weights to define anaspect of a probability distribution. As such, by implementing avariational machine-learning network, the disclosed system is able toaccurately approximate the conditional distribution of a real-worldchannel (e.g., it may represent a stochastic distribution over thepossible random behaviors in the channel). In contrast, if the disclosedsystem implemented a deterministic function for fixed parameters, itcould not accurately approximate such a distribution.

Channel input 702 in FIG. 8 may be a signal for transmission, such as anoutput of an encoder (e.g., transmitted signal 130 as shown in FIG. 1).Analogously, approximated channel output 712 may represent a simulatedreceived signal (e.g., simulated received signal 142) that attempts tomatch a received signal (e.g., received signal 140 as shown in FIG. 1).In some instances, networks may not be sequential in nature, leveragingconnections between various layers or neurons which bypass or routethrough a plurality of possible architectures.

During training, the variational network may be trained to emulate areal-world channel (e.g., channel 704 as shown in FIG. 7, or channel 108as shown in FIG. 1). During training, the variational network mayapproximate a channel function of a real-world channel throughobservation, or a similar regression network to minimize loss (e.g.,mean square error loss) between the approximate channel 706 and areal-world channel.

In general, the variational network may include one or more collectionsof multiplications, divisions, and summations or other operations ofinputs and intermediate values, optionally followed by non-linearities(such as rectified linear units, sigmoid function, or otherwise) orother operations (e.g., normalization), which may be arranged in afeed-forward manner or in a manner with feedback and in-layerconnections (e.g., a recurrent neural network (RNN) where sequences oftraining information may be used in some instances). For example, arecurrent neural network may be a long-short term memory (LSTM) neuralnetwork that includes one or more LSTM memory blocks, or aquasi-recurrent neural network (QRNN) which combines elements ofconvolutional networks with recurrent networks.

Parameters and weight values in the network may be used for a singlemultiplication, as in a fully connected neural network (DNN), or theymay be “tied” or replicated across multiple locations within the networkto form one or more receptive fields, such as in a convolutional neuralnetwork, a dilated convolutional neural network, a residual networkunit, or similar. The specific structure for the networks may beexplicitly specified at design time, or may be selected from a pluralityof possible architecture candidates to ascertain the best performingcandidate.

In some implementations, the variational network includes an outputlayer that includes a linear regression layer. The variational networkmay include at least one of (i) an output layer that includes a linearlayer for regression of approximated channel output 712, or (ii) asigmoid or hard-sigmoid activation layer for probability regression orslicing of the channel input 702, or (iii) an activation of acombination of sigmoid expressions such as a SoftMax or hierarchicalSoftMax which can compute a probabilistic expression such as apseudo-likelihood of a discrete message or set of bits.

The example of FIG. 8 shows only one possible implementation of anetwork structure that may be implemented. In general, implementationsare not limited to these specific types of layers, and otherconfigurations of layers and non-linearities may be used, such as dense,fully connected, and/or DNN layers, including rectified linear-unit(ReLU), sigmoid, tan h, and others. The network structure 800 uses theselayers to predict an approximated channel output 712 for a channel input702.

Channel input 702 may be a transmitted signal (e.g., transmitted signal130 as shown in FIG. 1), created by an encoder (e.g., encoder 904 asshown in FIG. 9). Channel input 702 may be the actual RF waveform inanalog form, or may be a series of radio samples in time, frequency, orany other signal representation basis, or may be an intermediaterepresentation (e.g., RF samples, basis coefficients, distributions overRF waveform values, etc.), for mapping the input information (e.g.,input information 902 as shown in FIG. 9) into an RF waveform fortransmission over a channel (e.g., channel 704 as shown in FIG. 7).Analogously, the channel output 712 may be a simulated received signal(e.g., simulated received signal 142 as shown in FIG. 1). Channel output712 may be the simulated received RF waveform in analog form, or may bean intermediate representation (e.g., RF samples, basis coefficients,distributions over RF waveform values, etc.), for mapping a received RFwaveform into reconstructed information (e.g., reconstructed information116 as shown in FIG. 1). For example, the channel input 702 and thechannel output 712 may represent distributions over RF waveform values.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of adversarially training an RF system 900that includes a sampler 914, a machine-learning encoder 904, amachine-learning decoder 912, a machine-learning discriminator 922, anda machine-learning approximated channel 910. The encoder 904 and thedecoder 912 may implement encoding and decoding techniques that werelearned by machine learning networks (“encoder network” and “decodernetwork”) to communicate over a real-world RF channel (e.g., channel 804as shown in FIG. 8, and channel 108 as shown in FIG. 1). Theapproximated channel 910 has a machine-learning network (“channelnetwork”) that is trained to approximate a real-world RF channel (e.g.,channel 804 as shown in FIG. 8, and channel 108 as shown in FIG. 1). Thediscriminator 922 has a machine-learning network (“discriminatornetwork”) that is trained to differentiate a signal produced byapproximated channel 910 from a signal produced by a real-world channel(e.g., channel 704 as shown in FIG. 7).

In some implementations, encoder 904 is encoder 104 as shown in FIG. 1.In some implementations, decoder 912 is decoder 114 as shown in FIG. 1.In some implementations, approximated channel 910 is approximatedchannel 120 as shown in FIG. 1. In some implementations, inputinformation 902 is input information 102 as shown in FIG. 1.

In some implementations, the encoder network and the decoder network areutilized for training to learn suitable encoding and decoding mappings,and such mappings may be implemented in a deployed system using moresimplified encoders and decoders. For example, a deployed system mayutilize using lookup tables at the encoder and distance-based metrics atthe decoder, or other simplified forms of encoding and decoding, thatare designed based on results of training the encoder network and thedecoder network.

The approximated channel 910 that is implemented during training may bea model of an RF channel that is obtained via simulation and/or based onreal-world RF channel data (e.g., channel 804 as shown in FIG. 8, andchannel 108 as shown in FIG. 1). For example, in some implementations,training begins with a simulated channel model to train the encodernetwork and the decoder network based on simulated propagation modelsreflecting a real world propagation environment or emitter data. Theencoder network and the decoder network may then be further trainedagainst a real channel where hardware is used with a training feedbackloop.

In some implementations, the approximated channel 910 includes effectsof transmitter and receiver components, such as filtering,amplification, modulation, etc. For example, in scenarios where asimulated channel is used for training, an analytic channel impairmentmodel may be utilized that fits a specific set of hardware/software andwireless deployment conditions. As such, the training in FIG. 9 maytrain the encoder network and the decoder network to operate underdifferent channel conditions, as well as for different real-worldtransmitter and receiver scenarios.

The discriminator 922 that is implemented during training is a binaryclassifier used to distinguish between signals that have passed througha real-world channel (e.g., channel output 710 as shown in FIG. 7, andreceived signal 140 as shown in FIG. 1) and those that have passedthrough an approximated channel (e.g., approximated channel output 712,and simulated received signal 142 as shown in FIG. 1), such asapproximated channel 910.

As discussed above with reference to FIG. 7, the approximated channel910/channel network and the discriminator 922/discriminator network mayform a generative adversarial network (GAN).

During training, the encoder network and the decoder network may eitherbe jointly trained or iteratively trained. For example, the encodernetwork and the decoder network may be jointly trained as anauto-encoder (as described in regards to FIG. 1, above). In someimplementations, the encoder network and the decoder networks areseparately/iteratively trained. In such scenarios, one of the networksmay be fixed (e.g., weights may be frozen and not updated), either byprevious training or by a transmission/reception scheme, while the othernetwork is trained to learn an encoding/decoding strategy that isappropriate for the fixed counterpart network.

For example, the encoder network may be fixed to generate a particularmapping of input information 902 for radio transmission 906, and thedecoder network may be trained to learn a mapping from the outputted RFsignal of the approximated channel 210 (e.g., approximated channeloutput 712, and simulated received signal 142 as shown in FIG. 1) toreconstructed information (e.g., reconstructed information 116 as shownin FIG. 1) that is best suited for the fixed network of encoder 904. Insome implementations, the input information 902 is represented bytraining data that is utilized for training purposes. The training datamay have a different form than the input information 902, butnonetheless may represent the input information 902 for purposes oftraining. In such scenarios, the encoder network may process thetraining data that represents the input information 902, and the decodernetwork may generate reconstructed information as a reconstruction ofthe input information 902 represented by the training data.

Similarly, during training, the channel network of the approximatedchannel 910 may either be jointly trained or iteratively trained withthe discriminator network of the discriminator 922. In someimplementations, the channel network and the discriminator network arejointly trained, such that updates for both networks are determined andthe networks are updated at the same time, at substantially the sametime, and/or within the same iteration of the training process. In someimplementations, the channel network is iteratively trained with thediscriminator network. In these implementations, one of the networks maybe fixed (e.g., parameter/layer weights of the networks are fixed andplaced and not updated during the training process), while other networkis updated.

Similarly, during training, the channel network and/or the discriminatornetwork may either be jointly trained or iteratively trained with theencoder network and/or the decoder network as described in more detailabove with respect to FIG. 2. In some implementations, the channelnetwork and/or the discriminator network is separately/iterativelytrained with the encoder network and/or the decoder network, where thechannel network, the discriminator network, and the encoder networkand/or the decoder network may have competing “adversarial” objectives.In such scenarios, one or more of the networks may be fixed, either byprevious training or by a transmission/reception scheme, while one ormore of the other networks are trained to either learn anencoding/decoding strategy that is appropriate for the fixed counterpartnetwork(s) (e.g., for training the encoding network and/or the decodingnetwork), to learn the transfer function of one or more analogelectronic radio components and/or wireless transmission channels (e.g.,for training the channel network), or to learn to accurately determinewhether a signal is from a real-world channel or from an approximatedchannel (e.g., for training the discriminator network).

For example, the encoder network and the decoder network may be fixed togenerate a particular mapping of input information 902 for radiotransmission 906, and the channel network may be trained to learn thetransfer function of one or more analog electronic radio componentsand/or wireless transmission channels (e.g., channel 704 as shown inFIG. 7, or channel 108 as shown in FIG. 1) while the discriminatornetwork is also trained to accurately determine whether a signal is froma real-world channel or from an approximated channel. In someimplementations, the input information 902 is represented by trainingdata that is utilized for training purposes. The training data may havea different form than the input information 902, but nonetheless mayrepresent the input information 202 for purposes of training. In suchscenarios, the encoder network may process the training data thatrepresents the input information 902, and the decoder network maygenerate reconstructed information as a reconstruction of the inputinformation 902 represented by the training data.

The output of the encoder 904 may be a signal for transmission orsimulated transmission (e.g., transmitted signal 130 as shown in FIG.1). This signal may be provided to radio transmission 906. Radiotransmission 906 may include a series of operations, including, forexample, converting the signal from digital to analog form (e.g., bydigital to analog converter 106 as shown in FIG. 1), amplifying thesignal, and sending the signal by antenna. Radio transmission 906 maytransmit the signal over various radio components and/or wirelesstransmission channels (e.g., channel 704 as shown in FIG. 7, or channel108 as shown in FIG. 1). This signal may be altered as a result of beingtransmitted. Radio reception 908 receives the altered signal and mayconvert it form an analog format to digital format. Radio reception 908may include, for example, an analog to digital converter (e.g., analogto digital converter 110 as shown in FIG. 1), and/or various analogelectronic components (e.g., an antenna). Radio reception 908 outputs areceived signal (e.g., channel output 710, or received signal 140 asshown in FIG. 1). This received signal is provided to the approximatedchannel 910 and the discriminator 922.

The output of the encoder 904 may also be provided to the sampler 914.Sampler 914 captures channel input/output pairs. Specifically, sampler914 captures the outputs of radio reception 908 or approximated channel910 with, as inputs, the outputs of encoder 904 or radio transmission906. Sampler 914 outputs a signal (“sampled signal”) to the approximatedchannel 910, the discriminator 922, and the decoder 912. Theapproximated channel 910 may produce a simulated received signal (e.g.,approximated channel output 712 as shown in FIG. 7, or simulatedreceived signal 142 as shown in FIG. 1). The simulated received signalmay be provided to the discriminator 922 in addition to or in place ofthe sampled signal (e.g., discriminator may receive only the sampledsignal during training, and only the simulated received signal duringdeployment). Decoder 912 may produce reconstructed information (e.g.,reconstructed information 116) that attempts to reproduce inputinformation 902.

The system 900 may compute a distance computation 916 between the inputinformation 902 and the reconstructed information outputted from thedecoder 912. The distance computation 916 may be a loss function. Thedistance computation 916 may be any suitable measure of distance betweenthe input information 902 and the reconstructed information, such as (i)cross-entropy, (ii) mean squared error, (iii) other geometric distancemetric (e.g., MAE), or (iv) another measure of accuracy of thereconstructed bits, codewords, or messages of the input information 902from the reconstructed information. The results of the distancecomputation 916 are provided to encoder/decoder updates 920 in order toupdate the machine-learning networks of the encoder 904 and/or decoder912. Here, the objective of the encoder/decoder updates 920 is tominimize the distance computation 916 in future iterations of thetraining process.

In some implementations, additional loss terms are used in the distancecomputation 916 in combination with such primary loss terms, for exampleto accomplish secondary objectives (e.g., to reduce interference imposedupon a secondary receiver, or to improve favorable signal propertiessuch as peak to average power ratio (PAPR)).

In addition to achieving an objective that includes the distancecomputation 916/loss function, the system 900 may also be configured toachieve an objective related to other performance measures, such asthroughput, error rates, power, bandwidth, complexity, or otherperformance metrics that are relevant for communication. In someimplementations, the system 900 is configured to achieve a desiredtrade-off between different performance metrics. For example, achievingsuch a trade-off may be implemented using an objective function thatcombines different metrics, for example as a weighted combination of themetrics. In addition or as an alternative, this trade-off may beachieved by selecting a model according to user preferences orapplication specifications. In addition or as an alternative, the system900 may implement one or more hard constraints on performance metrics,such as constraints on power, bandwidth, reconstruction error, etc.

The network update process (e.g., approximated channel updates 918,discriminator updates 924, and encoder/decoder updates 920) may updatethe channel network, the discriminator network, the encoder network,and/or the decoder network based on the various performance metrics.This updating may include updates to the network architectures,parameters, or weights of the networks. For example, the updating mayinclude updating weights or parameters in one or more layers of thenetworks, selecting machine-learning models for the networks, orselecting a specific network architecture, such as choice of layers,layer-hyperparameters, or other network features. As discussed, updatingmay be implemented on the channel network, the discriminator network,and the encoder and/or decoder network(s), in a joint or iterativemanner.

During the update process (e.g., approximated channel updates 918,discriminator updates 924, and encoder/decoder updates 920), the outputof the discriminator 922 (e.g., an indication of whether a receivedsignal is believed to be produced by a real-world channel or anapproximated channel) is provided to discriminator updates 924 and/orapproximated channel updates 918. For example, during joint training ofthe channel network and the discriminator network, the output of thediscriminator 922 may be provided to both the approximated channelupdates 918 and the discriminator updates 924 since updates to bothnetworks will be made. In contrast, during iterative training, forexample, the channel network of approximated channel 910 may be fixedand the output of the discriminator 922 may only be provided todiscriminator updates 924 in order to determine updates for thediscriminator 922.

Similarly, during the update process (e.g., approximated channel updates918, discriminator updates 924, and encoder/decoder updates 920), theoutput of the approximated channel 910 (e.g., approximated channeloutput 712 as shown in FIG. 7, or simulated received signal 142 as shownin FIG. 1) may be provided to approximated channel updates 918 and/ordiscriminator updates 924. For example, during joint training of thechannel network and the discriminator network, the output of theapproximated channel 910 may be provided to both the approximatedchannel updates 918 and the discriminator updates 924 (as well as to thediscriminator 922) since updates to both networks will be made. Incontrast, during iterative training, for example, the network ofdiscriminator 922 may be fixed and the output of the approximatedchannel 910 may only be provided to approximated channel updates 918 inorder to determine updates for the approximated channel 910 and itssampler 914.

Updates for the channel network of the approximated channel 910 may bedetermined by approximated channel updates 918 and provided to theapproximated channel 910 and to the sampler 914 (which is part of thechannel network of approximated channel 910).

Updates for the network of the discriminator 922 may be determined bydiscriminator updates 924 and provided to the discriminator 922.

As discussed above, the updates performed by the network update process(e.g., approximated channel updates 918, discriminator updates 924, andencoder/decoder updates 920) may be performed during training, and/ormay be performed during deployment to further update the channelnetwork, the discriminator network, the encoder network, and/or decodernetwork based on real-world deployment performance results.

In some implementations, the network update process (e.g., approximatedchannel updates 918, discriminator updates 924, and encoder/decoderupdates 920) updates the channel network, the discriminator network, theencoder network, and/or decoder network to achieve a desired objectivefunction(s), which may include loss function(s) (e.g., distancecomputation 916) and other performance metrics discussed above. In someimplementations, the network update process utilizes an optimizationmethod such as one of evolution (e.g., a genetic algorithm), gradientdescent, stochastic gradient descent, or other solution technique.

As an example of gradient-based updates, the network update process(e.g., approximated channel updates 918, discriminator updates 924, andencoder/decoder updates 920) may calculate a rate of change of theobjective function(s) relative to variations in the encoder networkand/or decoder network, for example by calculating or approximating agradient of the objective function. Such variations may include, forexample, variations in the weights of one or more network layers, orother network architecture choices. Here, where the approximated channel910 is based on real RF channel data and does not have a closed formgradient solution, the gradient of the objective function(s) isestimated using the channel machine-learning network of the approximatedchannel 910.

Based on the calculated rate of change of the objective function(s), thenetwork update process (e.g., approximated channel updates 918,discriminator updates 924, and encoder/decoder updates 920) maydetermine a first variation for the encoder network and/or a secondvariation for the decoder network. These variations may be computed, forexample, using Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) style optimizers, suchas Adam, AdaGrad, Nesterov SGD, or others. In some implementations,these variations are computed using other scalable methods for directsearch, such as evolutionary algorithms or particle swarm optimizations.

Once the variations have been determined, the network update processthen applies those variations to the encoder network and/or the decodernetwork. For example, the network update process may update at least oneencoding network weight in one or more layers of the encoder network,and/or at least one decoding network weight in one or more layers of thedecoder network.

In general, updating the channel network, the discriminator network, theencoder network, and/or the decoder network is not limited to updatingnetwork weights, and other types of updates may be implemented. Forexample, updating the networks may include selecting a machine-learningmodel for the encoding network, from among a plurality of encodingmodels, and selecting a machine-learning model for the decoder network,from among a plurality of decoding models. In such implementations,selecting machine-learning models may include selecting a specificnetwork architecture, such as choice of layers, layer-hyperparameters,or other network features.

By training the encoder network and/or decoder network over theapproximated channel 910 having a channel network and emulating areal-world RF channel, the encoder network and decoder network may beoptimized to communicate over a particular RF channel even for difficultcases (e.g., the transfer function of the component or wireless effectis hard to model or compensate for accurately or at low computationalcomplexity in traditional systems, often leading to performancedegradation). By using an approximated channel 910 having a channelnetwork to train the encoder 904 and/or decoder 912 networks, the needfor a closed form channel model or assumption about the channel effectson the system 200 are removed.

By the system 900 implementing both an approximated channel 910 having achannel network and a discriminator 922 having a network, the systemimplements a GAN. In addition, by using a sampler 914, the system 900implements a variational-GAN which can accurately approximate theconditional distribution of a real-world channel (e.g., channel 704 asshown in FIG. 7, channel 108 as shown in FIG. 1, a stochastic channel,etc.).

In some implementations, the encoder network and the decoder network arealso trained when a real-world channel is used (e.g., when the lowerpath is followed in FIG. 1). In such implementations, additionaltransmission and reception components (either hardware or software) areimplemented to transmit and receive analog RF waveforms over the realchannel. Such transmit and receive components may be implemented eitherin the encoder network and decoder network, or their effects may beincluded in the channel effects that are accounted for in theapproximated channel 910.

Training the channel network, the discriminator network, the encodernetwork, and/or the decoder network may begin with any suitable set ofinitial conditions. For example, the training may begin with a randomset of basis functions subject to certain conditions. Alternatively, thetraining may begin with a fixed set of basis functions, such as commonlyused RF communication basis functions including Quadrature Phase-ShiftKeying (QPSK) or Gaussian Binary Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK),orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDM), or other fixed setof basis functions.

During training, the encoder network and decoder network attempt tolearn improved basis functions, according to results of encoding anddecoding. Training the encoder 904 and decoder 912 may involveoptimizing over a set of basis functions or over different sets of basisfunctions, for example using greedy search or other optimization-typealgorithm.

In some implementations, the input information 902 is chosen from atraining set of information. The input information 902 is, in someimplementations, limited to a particular class of information, such asbinary information, discrete-time information, analog waveforms, orother class of information. In such scenarios, the system 900 will betrained to learn communication encoding and decoding techniques that aretuned to communicate that particular class of information (over aparticular channel). By training on different types of input information902 and for a particular approximated channel 910 (e.g., that mayemulate a particular real-world channel), the system 900 may be trainedto learn near-optimal encoding and decoding operations for a particularcommunication scenario.

The distance computations/loss functions (e.g., distance computation916) may be any suitable measure, or combination of measures, ofdistance between either the input information 902 and the reconstructedinformation, or the received signal and the simulated received signal.For example, the distance computations/loss functions may includecross-entropy, mean squared error (MSE), clipped MSE which penalizespredicted values according to MSE but only for values which fall on thewrong side of a decision threshold, or an exponential loss function thatpenalizes loss exponentially, or other suitable distance metric(s).

In addition, as discussed above, other performance metrics may beincorporated into training, for example as part of the distancecomputations/loss functions and/or as hard constraints, etc. Forexample, such performance metrics may include bit error rate (BER) as afunction of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), communication bandwidth,communication power, spectral efficiency (the number of bits per secondthat can be transmitted over a fixed bandwidth channel at a specificSNR). Any one or combinations of such metrics may be utilized duringtraining as part of the distance computations/loss functions (e.g., as aweighted combination) and/or as hard constraints in addition to thedistance computations/loss functions.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example method 1000 for traininga machine-learning network of an approximated communications channel ofan RF system. The training method 1000 may be performed by one or moreprocessors, such as one or more CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, FPGAs, ASICs, TPUs, orneuromorphic chips or vector accelerators that execute instructionsencoded on a computer storage medium.

In some implementations, the method 1000 is performed by the componentsof system 100 (and/or system 700, and/or system 800, and/or system 900),such as encoder 104 to produce transmitted signal 130, digital to analogconverter 106 to convert the transmitted signal 130 to an analog signal,real-world channel 108 (or channel 704 as shown in FIG. 7) to have theanalog signal transmitted over, analog to digital converter 110 toproduce received signal 140, and decoder 114 to reconstruct the inputinformation 102.

Accordingly, the method 1000 is described with respect to components ofthe system 100 (and/or system 700, and/or system 800, and/or system900). However, the method 1000 also can be performed by other systems.

The method 1000 includes transmitting input information through a firstcommunications channel (1002). First communications channel may includea single wireless transmission channel, multiple wireless transmissionchannels, various analog radio components, or a combination of one ormore transmission channels and analog radio components. Firstcommunications channel may be a real-world communications channel, suchas, for example, a wireless local area network (WLAN) channel, a Wi-Fichannel, a Bluetooth channel, a cellular network channel (e.g., oneimplementing GSM or UMTS technology), etc. First communications channelmay be channel 108 as shown in FIG. 1, or channel 704 as shown in FIG.7. Input information may include a RF signal, such as, for example,transmitted signal 130 as shown in FIG. 1. Input information may bechannel input 702 as shown in FIGS. 7-8. Input information may be theoutput of encoder 904 as shown in FIG. 9. Input information may be theoutput of radio transmission 906 as shown in FIG. 9.

The method 1000 further includes obtaining first information as anoutput of the first communications channel (1004). In trainingscenarios, the effects of the first communication channel may beimplemented by a model of a channel obtained by simulation and/or realchannel data, or may be implemented by a real-world communicationchannel. The first information may represent an analog RF waveform thatis received over a channel, or may be an intermediate representation(e.g., samples, basis coefficients, distributions over RF waveformsetc.) that is a result of processing (e.g., filtering, sampling,equalizing, etc.) a received analog RF waveform. The first informationmay be received signal 140 as shown in FIG. 1. The first information maybe channel output 710 as shown in FIG. 7. The first information may bethe output of radio reception 908 as shown in FIG. 9.

The method 1000 further includes transmitting the input informationthrough a second communications channel implementing a channelmachine-learning network, the second communications channel representinga model of the first communications channel (1006). The secondcommunications channel can be an approximated channel, such as, forexample, approximated channel 120 as shown in FIG. 1, approximatedchannel 706 as shown in FIGS. 7-8, or approximated channel 910 as shownin FIG. 9. In some implementations, transmitting the input informationinvolves simulating transmission of the input information through thesecond communications.

The method 1000 further includes obtaining second information as anoutput of the second communications channel (1008). The secondinformation may be the simulated received signal 142 as shown in FIG. 1.The second information may be the approximated channel output 712 asshown in FIGS. 7-8. The second information may be the output of theapproximated channel 910 as shown in FIG. 2.

The method 1000 further includes providing the first information or thesecond information to a discriminator machine-learning network as aninput (1010). The discriminator may be a binary classifier used toaccurately distinguish between outputs of a real-world channel andoutputs of an approximated channel/channel model. Discriminator may bediscriminator 708 as shown in FIG. 7. Discriminator may be discriminator922 as shown in FIG. 9.

The method 1000 further includes obtaining an output of thediscriminator machine-learning network (1012). The output of thediscriminator may be a binary output. For example, discriminator mayoutput a 1 to represent that it approximates that the information itreceived was from an approximated channel, and may output a 0 torepresent that it approximates that the information it received was froma real-world channel.

The method 1000 further includes updating the channel machine-learningnetwork using the output of the discriminator machine-learning network(1014). This update may be applied to the channel machine-learningnetwork in a joint or iterative manner (with respect the discriminatormachine-learning network), or individually, as discussed above. Theupdates may generally include updating any suitable machine-learningnetwork feature of the encoder network and/or decoder network, such asnetwork weights, architecture choice, machine-learning model, or otherparameter or connectivity design, as discussed in regards to FIGS. 8-9,above. As an example, an update to the channel machine-learning networkmay include adjusting network layer(s) 802, network layer(s) 810, latentdistribution parameters 804, latent space 806, or the sampler 808.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a computing system thatmay be used to implement one or more components of a system thatperforms learned communication over RF channels.

The computing system includes computing device 1100 and a mobilecomputing device 1150 that can be used to implement the techniquesdescribed herein. For example, one or more parts of an encodermachine-learning network system or a decoder machine-learning networksystem could be an example of the system 1100 described here, such as acomputer system implemented in any of the machine-learning networks,devices that access information from the machine-learning networks, or aserver that accesses or stores information regarding the encoding anddecoding performed by the machine-learning networks.

The computing device 1100 is intended to represent various forms ofdigital computers, such as laptops, desktops, workstations, personaldigital assistants, servers, blade servers, mainframes, and otherappropriate computers. The mobile computing device 1150 is intended torepresent various forms of mobile devices, such as personal digitalassistants, cellular telephones, smart-phones, mobile embedded radiosystems, radio diagnostic computing devices, and other similar computingdevices. The components shown here, their connections and relationships,and their functions, are meant to be examples only, and are not meant tobe limiting.

The computing device 1100 includes a processor 1102, a memory 1104, astorage device 1106, a high-speed interface 1108 connecting to thememory 1104 and multiple high-speed expansion ports 1110, and alow-speed interface 1112 connecting to a low-speed expansion port 1114and the storage device 1106. Each of the processor 1102, the memory1104, the storage device 1106, the high-speed interface 1108, thehigh-speed expansion ports 1110, and the low-speed interface 1112, areinterconnected using various busses, and may be mounted on a commonmotherboard or in other manners as appropriate. The processor 1102 canprocess instructions for execution within the computing device 1100,including instructions stored in the memory 1104 or on the storagedevice 1106 to display graphical information for a GUI on an externalinput/output device, such as a display 1116 coupled to the high-speedinterface 1108. In other implementations, multiple processors and/ormultiple buses may be used, as appropriate, along with multiple memoriesand types of memory. In addition, multiple computing devices may beconnected, with each device providing portions of the operations (e.g.,as a server bank, a group of blade servers, or a multi-processorsystem). In some implementations, the processor 1102 is asingle-threaded processor. In some implementations, the processor 1102is a multi-threaded processor. In some implementations, the processor1102 is a quantum computer.

The memory 1104 stores information within the computing device 1100. Insome implementations, the memory 1104 is a volatile memory unit orunits. In some implementations, the memory 1104 is a non-volatile memoryunit or units. The memory 1104 may also be another form ofcomputer-readable medium, such as a magnetic or optical disk.

The storage device 1106 is capable of providing mass storage for thecomputing device 1100. In some implementations, the storage device 1106is or includes a computer-readable medium, such as a floppy disk device,a hard disk device, an optical disk device, or a tape device, a flashmemory or other similar solid-state memory device, or an array ofdevices, including devices in a storage area network or otherconfigurations. Instructions can be stored in an information carrier.The instructions, when executed by one or more processing devices (forexample, processor 1102), perform one or more methods, such as thosedescribed above. The instructions can also be stored by one or morestorage devices such as computer- or machine-readable mediums (forexample, the memory 1104, the storage device 1106, or memory on theprocessor 1102). The high-speed interface 1108 managesbandwidth-intensive operations for the computing device 1100, while thelow-speed interface 1112 manages lower bandwidth-intensive operations.Such allocation of functions is an example only. In someimplementations, the high-speed interface 1108 is coupled to the memory1104, the display 1116 (e.g., through a graphics processor oraccelerator), and to the high-speed expansion ports 1110, which mayaccept various expansion cards (not shown). In the implementation, thelow-speed interface 1112 is coupled to the storage device 1106 and thelow-speed expansion port 1114. The low-speed expansion port 1114, whichmay include various communication ports (e.g., USB, Bluetooth, Ethernet,wireless Ethernet) may be coupled to one or more input/output devices,such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a scanner, or a networking devicesuch as a switch or router, e.g., through a network adapter.

The computing device 1100 may be implemented in a number of differentforms, as shown in the figure. For example, it may be implemented as astandard server 1120, or multiple times in a group of such servers. Inaddition, it may be implemented in a personal computer such as a laptopcomputer 1122. It may also be implemented as part of a rack serversystem 1124. Alternatively, components from the computing device 1100may be combined with other components in a mobile device (not shown),such as a mobile computing device 1150. Each of such devices may includeone or more of the computing device 1100 and the mobile computing device1150, and an entire system may be made up of multiple computing devicescommunicating with each other.

The mobile computing device 1150 includes a processor 1152, a memory1164, an input/output device such as a display 1154, a communicationinterface 1166, and a transceiver 1168, among other components. Themobile computing device 1150 may also be provided with a storage device,such as a micro-drive or other device, to provide additional storage.Each of the processor 1152, the memory 1164, the display 1154, thecommunication interface 1166, and the transceiver 1168, areinterconnected using various buses, and several of the components may bemounted on a common motherboard or in other manners as appropriate.

The processor 1152 can execute instructions within the mobile computingdevice 1150, including instructions stored in the memory 1164. Theprocessor 1152 may be implemented as a chipset of chips that includeseparate and multiple analog and digital processors. The processor 1152may provide, for example, for coordination of the other components ofthe mobile computing device 1150, such as control of user interfaces,applications run by the mobile computing device 1150, and wirelesscommunication by the mobile computing device 1150.

The processor 1152 may communicate with a user through a controlinterface 1158 and a display interface 1156 coupled to the display 1154.The display 1154 may be, for example, a TFT (Thin-Film-Transistor LiquidCrystal Display) display or an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode)display, or other appropriate display technology. The display interface1156 may include appropriate circuitry for driving the display 1154 topresent graphical and other information to a user. The control interface1158 may receive commands from a user and convert them for submission tothe processor 1152. In addition, an external interface 1162 may providecommunication with the processor 1152, so as to enable near areacommunication of the mobile computing device 1150 with other devices.The external interface 1162 may provide, for example, for wiredcommunication in some implementations, or for wireless communication inother implementations, and multiple interfaces may also be used.

The memory 1164 stores information within the mobile computing device1150. The memory 1164 can be implemented as one or more of acomputer-readable medium or media, a volatile memory unit or units, or anon-volatile memory unit or units. An expansion memory 1174 may also beprovided and connected to the mobile computing device 1150 through anexpansion interface 1172, which may include, for example, a SIMM (SingleIn Line Memory Module) card interface. The expansion memory 1174 mayprovide extra storage space for the mobile computing device 1150, or mayalso store applications or other information for the mobile computingdevice 1150. Specifically, the expansion memory 1174 may includeinstructions to carry out or supplement the processes described above,and may include secure information also. Thus, for example, theexpansion memory 1174 may be provide as a security module for the mobilecomputing device 1150, and may be programmed with instructions thatpermit secure use of the mobile computing device 1150. In addition,secure applications may be provided via the SIMM cards, along withadditional information, such as placing identifying information on theSIMM card in a non-hackable manner.

The memory may include, for example, flash memory and/or NVRAM memory(non-volatile random access memory), as discussed below. In someimplementations, instructions are stored in an information carrier suchthat the instructions, when executed by one or more processing devices(for example, processor 1152), perform one or more methods, such asthose described above. The instructions can also be stored by one ormore storage devices, such as one or more computer- or machine-readablemediums (for example, the memory 1164, the expansion memory 1174, ormemory on the processor 1152). In some implementations, the instructionsare received in a propagated signal, for example, over the transceiver1168 or the external interface 1162.

The mobile computing device 1150 may communicate wirelessly through thecommunication interface 1166, which may include digital signalprocessing circuitry where necessary. The communication interface 1166may provide for communications under various modes or protocols, such asGSM voice calls (Global System for Mobile communications), SMS (ShortMessage Service), EMS (Enhanced Messaging Service), or MMS messaging(Multimedia Messaging Service), CDMA (code division multiple access),TDMA (time division multiple access), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular),WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), CDMA2000, or GPRS(General Packet Radio Service), LTE, 5G/6G cellular, among others. Suchcommunication may occur, for example, through the transceiver 1168 usinga radio frequency. In addition, short-range communication may occur,such as using a Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or other such transceiver (not shown).In addition, a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver module 1170 mayprovide additional navigation- and location-related wireless data to themobile computing device 1150, which may be used as appropriate byapplications running on the mobile computing device 1150.

The mobile computing device 1150 may also communicate audibly using anaudio codec 1160, which may receive spoken information from a user andconvert it to usable digital information. The audio codec 1160 maylikewise generate audible sound for a user, such as through a speaker,e.g., in a handset of the mobile computing device 1150. Such sound mayinclude sound from voice telephone calls, may include recorded sound(e.g., voice messages, music files, etc.) and may also include soundgenerated by applications operating on the mobile computing device 1150.

The mobile computing device 1150 may be implemented in a number ofdifferent forms, as shown in the figure. For example, it may beimplemented as a cellular telephone 1180. It may also be implemented aspart of a smart-phone 1182, personal digital assistant, or other similarmobile device.

The term “system” as used in this disclosure may encompass allapparatus, devices, and machines for processing data, including by wayof example a programmable processor, a computer, or multiple processorsor computers. A processing system can include, in addition to hardware,code that creates an execution environment for the computer program inquestion, e.g., code that constitutes processor firmware, a protocolstack, a database management system, an operating system, or acombination of one or more of them.

A computer program (also known as a program, software, softwareapplication, script, executable logic, or code) can be written in anyform of programming language, including compiled or interpretedlanguages, or declarative or procedural languages, and it can bedeployed in any form, including as a standalone program or as a module,component, subroutine, or other unit suitable for use in a computingenvironment. A computer program does not necessarily correspond to afile in a file system. A program can be stored in a portion of a filethat holds other programs or data (e.g., one or more scripts stored in amarkup language document), in a single file dedicated to the program inquestion, or in multiple coordinated files (e.g., files that store oneor more modules, sub programs, or portions of code). A computer programcan be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiple computersthat are located at one site or distributed across multiple sites andinterconnected by a communication network.

Computer readable media suitable for storing computer programinstructions and data include all forms of non-volatile or volatilememory, media and memory devices, including by way of examplesemiconductor memory devices, e.g., EPROM, EEPROM, and flash memorydevices; magnetic disks, e.g., internal hard disks or removable disks ormagnetic tapes; magneto optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. Theprocessor and the memory can be supplemented by, or incorporated in,special purpose logic circuitry. Sometimes a server is a general-purposecomputer, and sometimes it is a custom-tailored special purposeelectronic device, and sometimes it is a combination of these things.

Implementations can include a back end component, e.g., a data server,or a middleware component, e.g., an application server, or a front endcomponent, e.g., a client computer having a graphical user interface ora Web browser through which a user can interact with an implementationof the subject matter described is this specification, or anycombination of one or more such back end, middleware, or front endcomponents. The components of the system can be interconnected by anyform or medium of digital data communication, e.g., a communicationnetwork. Examples of communication networks include a local area network(“LAN”) and a wide area network (“WAN”), e.g., the Internet.

The features described can be implemented in digital electroniccircuitry, or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or incombinations of them. The apparatus can be implemented in a computerprogram product tangibly embodied in an information carrier, e.g., in amachine-readable storage device, for execution by a programmableprocessor; and method steps can be performed by a programmable processorexecuting a program of instructions to perform functions of thedescribed implementations by operating on input data and generatingoutput. The described features can be implemented advantageously in oneor more computer programs that are executable on a programmable systemincluding at least one programmable processor coupled to receive dataand instructions from, and to transmit data and instructions to, a datastorage system, at least one input device, and at least one outputdevice. A computer program is a set of instructions that can be used,directly or indirectly, in a computer to perform a certain activity orbring about a certain result. A computer program can be written in anyform of programming language, including compiled or interpretedlanguages, and it can be deployed in any form, including as astand-alone program or as a module, component, subroutine, or other unitsuitable for use in a computing environment.

While this disclosure contains many specific implementation details,these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of anyinvention or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions offeatures that may be specific to particular implementations ofparticular inventions. Certain features that are described in thisdisclosure in the context of separate implementations can also beimplemented in combination in a single implementation. Conversely,various features that are described in the context of a singleimplementation can also be implemented in multiple implementationsseparately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover, althoughfeatures may be described above as acting in certain combinations andeven initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimedcombination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and theclaimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation ofa subcombination.

Similarly, while operations are depicted in the drawings in a particularorder, this should not be understood as requiring that such operationsbe performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, orthat all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirableresults. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processingmay be advantageous. Moreover, the separation of various system modulesand components in the implementations described above should not beunderstood as requiring such separation in all implementations, and itshould be understood that the described program components and systemscan generally be integrated together in a single software product orpackaged into multiple software products.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method performed by at least one processor totrain at least one machine-learning network to communicate over acommunication channel, the method comprising: transmitting inputinformation through a first communication channel; obtaining firstinformation as an output of the first communication channel;transmitting the input information through a second communicationchannel implementing a channel machine-learning network, the secondcommunication channel representing a model of the first communicationchannel; obtaining second information as an output of the secondcommunication channel; providing the first information or the secondinformation to a discriminator machine-learning network as an input;obtaining an output of the discriminator machine-learning network;updating the channel machine-learning network using the output of thediscriminator machine-learning network; using the channelmachine-learning network to predict a channel response; and using thechannel response to determine a candidate location for at least one of acell tower, an antenna, a remote radio head, or an antenna array.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network indicates a decision by the discriminatormachine-learning network whether the input provided to the discriminatormachine-learning network was the output of the first communicationchannel or the second communication channel.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the output of the discriminator machine-learning network is abinary output.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the output of thediscriminator machine-learning network indicates a degree of similaritybetween the first communication channel and the second communicationchannel.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the channel machine-learningnetwork includes one or more variational layers or neurons containing arandom sampling operation using at least one of inputs or weights todefine a particular aspect of a probability distribution.
 6. The methodof claim 1, wherein the channel machine-learning network is conditionedon one or more inputs.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein conditioningthe channel machine-learning network on the one or more inputs comprisesconditioning the channel machine-learning network using historicalmeasurements.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the channelmachine-learning network is conditioned on one or more locations of oneor more radios transceiving the input information or the firstinformation.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein transceiving the inputinformation or the first information comprises transceiving aradio-frequency signal generated from the input information or the firstinformation.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprising using thechannel response to determine signal coverage in an area based on one ormore performance metrics.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprisingusing the channel response to determine an estimate of signal coveragein an area based on one or more performance metrics.
 12. The method ofclaim 1, wherein using the channel response to determine the candidatelocation comprises using the channel response to predict a location of acell tower.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the channel responseindicates that signal quality at the location is higher than the signalquality at adjacent locations, and wherein using the channel response topredict the location of the cell tower comprises determining that thesignal quality at the location is higher than the signal quality at theadjacent locations.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the signalquality is determined using one or more performance metrics.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, wherein the performance metrics comprise one or moreof a signal strength, a bit error rate, a signal-to-noise ratio, acommunication bandwidth, a communication power, a spectral efficiency, alevel of interference, a level of fading, a level of distortion, a meansquared error, or an error vector magnitude.
 16. The method of claim 1,wherein determining the candidate location comprises: predictingperformance of the least one cell tower, antenna, remote radio head, orantenna array at the candidate location; and determining that theperformance of the least one cell tower, antenna, remote radio head, orantenna array at the candidate location meets selected criteria.
 17. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the channel response indicates that signalquality at the candidate location is less than the signal quality atadjacent locations, and wherein using the channel response to determinethe candidate location of the at least one cell tower, antenna, remoteradio head, or antenna array comprises determining that the signalquality at the candidate location is less than the signal quality at theadjacent locations.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein signal qualityis determined using one or more performance metrics.
 19. The method ofclaim 18, wherein the performance metrics comprise one or more of asignal strength, a bit error rate, a signal-to-noise ratio, acommunication bandwidth, a communication power, a spectral efficiency, alevel of interference, a level of fading, a level of distortion, a meansquared error, or an error vector magnitude.
 20. The method of claim 1,wherein the channel response indicates signal interference in a firstband of frequencies corresponding to the transmission of the inputinformation through the second communication channel, and the methodfurther comprises updating the channel machine-learning network to use asecond band of frequencies that is different from the first band offrequencies.
 21. The method of claim 1, wherein the input information isa first radio-frequency signal generated by an encoder machine-learningnetwork, and wherein the first information or the second information isa second radio-frequency signal that is sent to a decodermachine-learning network for processing.
 22. The method of claim 21,comprising training at least one of the channel machine-learningnetwork, the encoder machine-learning network, the decodermachine-learning network, or the discriminator machine-learning networkusing a propagation model, wherein the propagation model corresponds toa real-world propagation environment.
 23. The method of claim 1, whereinusing the channel response to determine the candidate location comprisesusing the channel response to determine a candidate location for anantenna or antenna array.
 24. The method of claim 1, wherein using thechannel response to determine the candidate location comprises using thechannel response to determine a candidate location for a remote radiohead.
 25. A system comprising: at least one processor; and at least onecomputer memory coupled to the at least one processor having storedthereon instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor,cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:transmitting input information through a first communication channel;obtaining first information as an output of the first communicationchannel; transmitting the input information through a secondcommunication channel implementing a channel machine-learning network,the second communication channel representing a model of the firstcommunication channel; obtaining second information as an output of thesecond communication channel; providing the first information or thesecond information to a discriminator machine-learning network as aninput; obtaining an output of the discriminator machine-learningnetwork; updating the channel machine-learning network using the outputof the discriminator machine-learning network; using the channelmachine-learning network to predict a channel response; and using thechannel response to determine a candidate location for at least one of acell tower, an antenna, a remote radio head, or an antenna array. 26.One or more non-transitory computer-readable media, storing a computerprogram, the program comprising instructions that when executed by oneor more processing devices cause the one or more processing devices toperform operations comprising: transmitting input information through afirst communication channel; obtaining first information as an output ofthe first communication channel; transmitting the input informationthrough a second communication channel implementing a channelmachine-learning network, the second communication channel representinga model of the first communication channel; obtaining second informationas an output of the second communication channel; providing the firstinformation or the second information to a discriminatormachine-learning network as an input; obtaining an output of thediscriminator machine-learning network; updating the channelmachine-learning network using the output of the discriminatormachine-learning network; using the channel machine-learning network topredict a channel response; and using the channel response to determinea candidate location for at least one of a cell tower, an antenna, aremote radio head, or an antenna array.